Lauren Hochfelder on Bloomberg The Close

Morgan Stanley Investment Management announced today that funds managed by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital and Morgan Stanley Private Credit have provided $125 million in senior debt financing to FreshBooks, one of the leaders in cloud-based accounting software for small businesses. This investment will refinance existing debt and is expected to fuel the company’s continued growth.

The Morgan Stanley Global Opportunity Fund, managed by Kristian Heugh, was among 9% of global stock funds that outperformed their benchmark, the MSCI All-Country World Index, while being underweight the so-called Magnificent Seven that drove nearly 20% returns for the index.

With Formula One’s rising popularity in the US, Kristian Heugh, manager of the $14.6 billion Global Opportunity Fund, opened a position in F1 owner Liberty Media Corp. in the third quarter of last year and describes the company as “one of the most unique assets in the world.” His 34-stock portfolio outran 92% of peers in 2024 with a 27% return, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

New pricing patterns and rising compeittiveness are helping to distinguish GP-leds from the LP-led side of the secondaries market.