Private credit investors pulled more than $7bn from some of the biggest funds on Wall Street in the final months of last year, as jitters over credit quality following the bankruptcies of First Brands and Tricolor hit one of the fastest-growing parts of finance.
Funds managed by Apollo Global Management, Ares Management, Barings, Blackstone, BlackRock’s HPS Investment Partners, Blue Owl, Cliffwater and Oaktree all suffered an uptick in redemption requests, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and people familiar with the matter.
Redemptions were running at about 5 per cent of the value of the funds’ investment portfolios, net of debt, according to FT calculations. Executives say the $7bn figure will grow as funds report more numbers in the weeks ahead, underscoring how investor appetite for private credit has deteriorated in the wake of the two high-profile corporate failures.