Blackstone has increased the redemptions for one of its evergreen private credit funds to 7.9 per cent, amid the sector facing rising investor withdrawal requests.
In a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the alternative asset manager said it is meeting investor requests by “upsizing” the typical 5 per cent quarterly repurchase limit for the Blackstone Private Credit Fund (BCRED) to 7 per cent of the fund’s total shares, and by stepping in, alongside employees, to offset the remaining 0.9 per cent.
“This enabled BCRED to meet 100 per cent of requests for the quarter with certainty and timeliness while further aligning Blackstone and its employees alongside BCRED’s shareholders,” the filing said.
Blackstone stated that this approach was driven by the tender offer structure, not by any constraints on BCRED’s liquidity.
Based on the fund’s current valuation, this amounted to $3.7bn (£2.8bn), which was less than the $2bn in new commitments made to the fund.
According to the filing, BCRED currently has a portfolio of $82bn in assets under management and reported $8bn of liquidity as of 31 December.
The SEC filing also noted that BCRED has delivered an annualised total return of 9.8 per cent since its inception in 2021 and an 8 per cent total return in 2025, which “represents 360 basis points of outperformance versus leveraged loans since inception”.
The news of Blackstone’s private credit fund being hit by redemption requests comes as withdrawals across private credit funds have increased in recent quarters, amid investor anxiety over the asset class and its exposure to software businesses under pressure due to the progression of artificial intelligence.
Last month, Blue Owl Capital restricted investor redemptions from one of its retail debt funds while selling $1.4bn of direct lending investments to boost liquidity.
Ratings agencies have reassured investors that, regarding Blue Owl’s business development company, the issues stem from liquidity pressures rather than asset quality concerns, noting that the underlying fundamentals of the fund remain “stable” despite negative headlines.
However, they warned that the strain on private credit funds may signal that, as alternative managers push further into the retail market, liquidity management, disclosure, and fund structure design could become increasingly central to investor decision-making, and potentially a drag on returns.
