By Nate Wolf
Alternative-manager stocks held steady Thursday even as Blackstone capped withdrawals from its flagship private-credit fund -- a move that has tended to spook Wall Street in recent months.
Investors in the Blackstone Private Credit Fund, or BCRED, requested to withdraw 10% of outstanding shares in the second quarter, but the firm stuck to its standard 5% repurchase limit. That decision marks a reversal from the first quarter, when Blackstone fulfilled all redemption requests, totaling 7% of the fund. BCRED has some $79 billion in investments.
The announcement didn't dent the shares of asset managers with large private-credit practices. Blackstone stock rose 3%, Blue Owl Capital jumped 2.1%, KKR & Co. was up 2.9%, and Ares Management gained 3.5%.
That isn't usually the case: On Wednesday, those stocks tumbled after Swiss asset manager Partners Group capped redemptions from an evergreen private-equity fund and said volatility in private credit was "spilling over" into other asset classes.
A few details from Blackstone's filing may have kept investors calm. To start, the fund said redemption activity slowed in the second half of the offer period. Fundraising in Blackstone's other private wealth products, meanwhile, has accelerated recently.
"We are entering an investment environment that we believe is especially compelling for corporate direct lending," BCRED's managers said in an investor letter. "Following a period of volatility early this year, markets are stabilizing, and deal activity is increasing at wider spreads compared to the prior quarter."
Blackstone also moved to assuage concerns about the health of the underlying loans in the fund. BCRED's borrowers have seen earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization grow 11% over the last 12 months, with software borrowers outperforming.
Private-credit funds' exposure to software companies has worried investors who view software companies as vulnerable to disruption by artificial-intelligence tools.
Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 04, 2026 09:58 ET (13:58 GMT)
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