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With apologies to Bob Marley, it’s a different sort of redemption song for the private credit industry.
Asset management giant Blackstone said Tuesday it closed an oversubscribed $10 billion opportunistic credit fund, suggesting the panic surrounding the private debt market isn’t gripping everyone.
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The $1.8 trillion private credit market’s ills are well known. A handful of high-profile implosions last year, led by UK lender Market Financial Solutions, US auto lender Tricolor and auto parts supplier First Brands spooked investors about loan quality. JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, whose every word can move markets, followed with his now-trademark “cockroach” warning about more defaults to come. Finishing the trifecta of investor anxiety was the sector’s significant exposure to the software industry, which has faced sell-offs over the potentially existential risk posed by artificial intelligence.
For many investors, the mounting anxiety has become too much to bear. In recent days and weeks, private credit funds at KKR, Morgan Stanley and Blue Owl Capital have enforced redemption caps after retail investors, in particular, overwhelmed them with requests to pull their cash. Even at Blackstone, senior staff chipped in $150 million earlier this year to help cover $3.8 billion in redemption requests at its flagship fund. So what’s Blackstone’s sudden tonic?
The new Blackstone Capital Opportunities Fund V will target both performing investments and opportunistic ones, which is code for undervalued assets, suggesting the recent panic has created a chance for bargain buying.
“This is a very attractive environment to deploy flexible capital in private corporate credit as well as to provide opportunistic and structured solutions to companies in sectors with strong thematic tailwinds,” said Rob Petrini, co-portfolio manager of the new fund.
Doubts Remain: Moody’s downgraded its outlook for business development companies, seen as a close public market proxy for private credit, to negative from stable Tuesday, citing the wave of redemption requests. What would bring back stability? A little less yanking of cash, naturally. With Barings becoming the latest firm to impose a fund cap on Monday, there’s no sign of waning anxiety just yet.
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