ORGANIZATION

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2025

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

ORGANIZATION

ORGANIZATION

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (the “Company”) is a non-diversified, externally managed specialty finance company focused on lending to middle-market companies. The Company has elected to be regulated as a business development company (“BDC”) under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”). In addition, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, the Company has elected to be treated, and intends to comply with the requirements to qualify annually, as a regulated investment company (“RIC”) under Subchapter M of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”). The Company is not a subsidiary of or consolidated with Morgan Stanley.

The Company was formed as a Delaware limited liability company on May 30, 2019 and, effective November 25, 2019, converted to a Delaware corporation. The Company commenced investment operations in January 2020. The Company is externally managed by MS Capital Partners Adviser Inc., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Morgan Stanley (the “Adviser” or “Investment Adviser”).

The Company’s investment objective is to achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns via current income and, to a lesser extent, capital appreciation by investing primarily in directly originated senior secured term loans issued by U.S. middle-market companies in which private equity sponsors have a controlling equity stake in the portfolio company.

The Company conducted private offerings of its common stock, par value $0.001 per share (the “Common Stock”), to investors in reliance on exemptions from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”). At the closing of each private offering, each investor made a capital commitment (a “Capital Commitment”) to purchase shares of Common Stock pursuant to a subscription agreement entered into with the Company. As of October 4, 2023, all Capital Commitments had been fully funded.

On January 26, 2024, the Company closed its initial public offering (“IPO”), issuing 5,000,000 shares of its Common Stock at a public offering price of $20.67 per share. Net of underwriting fees, the Company received net cash proceeds, before offering expenses, of $97.1 million. The Company’s Common Stock began trading on the NYSE under the symbol “MSDL” on January 24, 2024.