Investors rushed out of Blue Owl’s flagship and technology-focused credit funds as jitters continue to sharpen in private credit.
Blue Owl’s largest fund, a $36 billion pot of corporate loans known by its ticker, OCIC, received redemption requests for 22% of its assets, the firm said today. A smaller, $6 billion fund loaded with software loans — an unsettled corner of the investment world as AI disruption looms — saw 41% withdrawal requests. Blue Owl capped both at 5% withdrawals, as is industry standard.
In all, investors sought to redeem about 25% of their money across the two funds, according to Semafor calculations. The withdrawals, which were somewhat offset by inflows of about $1 billion, show the queasiness in private credit continues, and follow outflows at peer funds run by Ares (which saw 11.6% withdrawal requests at its flagship credit fund), Apollo (11.2%), and BlackRock-owned HPS (9.3%). Redemption requests have grown during the quarterly redemption cycle, and Blue Owl is the latest to report.
“We continue to observe a meaningful disconnect between the public dialogue on private credit and the underlying trends in our portfolio,” the firm said in a letter to investors.
The firm said both of its funds have enough cash on hand, including new inflows, repayments on the loans it owns, and untapped borrowing lines, to continue meeting 5%-per-quarter withdrawals, and one executive said in an interview that he believed the industry was in “peak redemption” mode. The redemption requests at Blue Owl included some large institutions and wasn’t just limited to panicky retail investors, this person said. (Ares had also noted a similar trend, calling out Asian family offices in particular).
Still, Blue Owl’s redemptions grew each of the past three months, meaning that blended quarterly rate obscures more acute panic lately.