Goldman Sachs has begun presenting hedge funds with structured approaches to short corporate loans, focusing on debt tied to enterprise software companies and other segments perceived as exposed to disruption from artificial intelligence. Bank representatives have outlined derivative-based trades that would generate gains if the market value of those loans falls.
The proposals center on total return swaps, a form of derivative that lets investors receive returns linked to the performance of a loan portfolio. In practice, those swaps would allow investors to capture the economic benefit of falling loan prices without directly holding the underlying loans.
According to people familiar with the discussions, Goldman has shown clients complex trade designs intended to benefit from additional weakness in loans to software companies that have come under pressure in recent months. The bank has also received inquiries from clients in recent weeks seeking such swaps and has started reaching out informally to hedge funds that might be interested in taking positions that profit from loan-price declines for technology-related borrowers.
Many of the enterprise software companies cited in the proposals are held by private equity owners. Those private equity groups invested heavily in the sector between 2020 and 2024, spending hundreds of billions of dollars on acquisitions of enterprise software makers. The loans to those firms have, in some cases, become focal points for investors seeking to express negative views on credit values as competitive dynamics shift.
Goldman’s outreach has emphasized derivative structures rather than outright loan purchases or sales, reflecting a preference for instruments that can transfer economic exposure with limited capital deployment. The total return swap arrangements discussed would make profits conditional on declines in loan valuations, effectively amplifying short exposure to the performance of those credits.
Market participants contacted for these discussions described the outreach as informal and driven by client demand for ways to bet against specific loan types rather than broad-market credit shorts. The bank’s activity highlights how structured products are being used to provide targeted credit market exposures amid changing perceptions of sector risk.