By Mackenzie Tatananni
Blackstone and other alternative asset managers have faced significant volatility on fears driven by disruptions from artificial intelligence. Shares of business development companies also have been affected, and this appears to have sparked insider buying at one Blackstone-managed fund.
Earlier this week, two high-ranking insiders bought common shares of beneficial interest in the Blackstone Secured Lending Fund, a private-credit vehicle that trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BXSL. The purchases marked the fund's first insider transactions of the year.
A Form 4 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this week showed the fund's chief operating officer, Kate Rubenstein, purchased 1,035 shares for $24.08 apiece on Tuesday. Rubenstein directly owned 5,770.705 shares after the transaction, including those acquired through a dividend reinvestment plan.
Another filing showed independent trustee and audit committee member James Clark purchased 750 shares for $23.78 each on Wednesday. Clark owned 2,750 shares after the purchase, which was his first since November 2025.
Business development companies lend money to private companies that are too small for private banks and pass the interest collected from those loans back to shareholders. Software is by far the largest industry exposure for many BDCs, with most software debt stemming from financing leveraged buyouts by major private-equity firms.
BXSL remains highly exposed to the software sector, which accounted for 21% of the portfolio as of the end of the fourth quarter. Fears over artificial-intelligence disruption have had an outsized impact on private credit, as tools like Anthropic's Claude are expected to automate tasks previously handled by software and disrupt software-as-a-service business models.
A significant amount of software debt is coming due, with refinancing pressure expected to increase in 2027 and a maturity wall peaking in 2028. Fears over AI could make it more difficult for software companies to refinance the upcoming debt.
Against this backdrop, there is mounting skepticism over the quality of BXSL's assets, which is reflected in the share price. The fund trades at a roughly 12% discount to its net asset value. Shares ended Friday at $23.65, compared with a NAV of $26.92 as of the end of the fourth quarter.
Blackstone itself has been a casualty of the software selloff. The asset manager, which collects fees for managing BXSL, has cratered 31% in 2026 against a decline of 3.1% for the benchmark S&P 500.
Inside Scoop is a regular Barron's feature covering stock transactions by corporate executives and board members -- so-called insiders -- as well as large shareholders, politicians, and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock trades with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups.
Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 14, 2026 09:47 ET (13:47 GMT)
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