The Carlyle Group (CG) Acquires $415M Private Student Loan Portfolio, Makes Strategic Investment in Monogram

Global investment firm, Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) today announced the acquisition of a $415 million private student loan portfolio, and strategic investment into Monogram LLC (“Monogram”), a leading provider of finance solutions for students and their families. Led by the former management team of Cognition Financial and backed by Carlyle, Monogram will partner with Carlyle to originate, acquire, and manage high-quality third-party private student loan assets.

The Monogram platform provides a fully outsourced, end-to-end private student loan solution for lenders. The platform is designed to be flexible and helps lending partners target risk profiles that align with their portfolio objectives. Product offerings include customizable private-label programs, school sales and marketing support, active portfolio management, and loan loss protection. The Monogram management team has been in the private student loan business for more than 30 years, originating and managing over $30 billion in private student loan assets. Monogram currently has more than $7 billion in private student loans under management.

“There is an opportunity for private markets to fill the gap left by traditional lenders reducing their lending to families to finance their higher education goals,” said Akhil Bansal, Managing Director and Head of Credit Strategic Solutions at Carlyle. “Carlyle is excited to partner with Monogram to deliver attractive and competitive financing solutions to the private student loan market.”

“Monogram has the data and analytics capabilities previously part of First Marblehead and Cognition Financial, and a management team with more than a century of expertise in the student loan industry,” said Seth Gelber, Chief Executive Officer of Monogram. “Now, with the financial backing of Carlyle, we’re better positioned to help all types of borrowers.”

“I started in this industry nearly three decades ago and I’ve never been more excited about our future than I am now. Demand for well-structured education finance products is as high as it has ever been,” said Daniel Meyers, Executive Chairman of Monogram.

This transaction was led by Carlyle’s Credit Strategic Solutions (“CSS”) team, a group within the Global Credit business focused on private fixed income and asset-backed investments. The highly experienced team leverages the knowledge, sourcing, structuring, and breadth of the entire Carlyle investment platform to deliver tailored asset-focused financing solutions to businesses, specialty finance companies, banks, asset managers, and other originators and owners of diversified pools of assets.

As of September 30, 2023, CSS has deployed more than $1.5 billion year to date.