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Blue Owl is experiencing elevated redemption requests for two of its private credit funds, according to letters to shareholders issued Thursday.
The firm’s flagship OCIC fund, with about $36 billion in assets under management, received redemption requests of about 21.9% of shares outstanding during the first quarter, the firm said. Blue Owl’s smaller, tech-oriented fund, OTIC, received redemption requests of 40.7% during the same period, it said.
In both of the funds, Blue Owl opted to cap requests at 5%. Blue Owl attributed the higher-than-usual requests to “heightened market concerns around AI-related disruption to software companies.”
“We continue to observe a meaningful disconnect between the public dialogue on private credit and the underlying trends in our portfolio,” Blue Owl said in the shareholder letters.
Shares of Blue Owl fell roughly 9% in premarket trading Thursday.
The private credit industry has been roiled in recent months by concerns that it is over-exposed to the software industry – an area that’s been under pressure over fears of disintermediation from artificial intelligence.
Software represents about 20% of portfolio exposure among business development companies, known as BDCs (a publicly traded proxy for private credit), according to Jefferies. Headline fears about default risk in the sector have driven a small but wealthy group of institutional investors to seek the exits from many of these funds.
“As public market dislocations and AI-related uncertainty reshape sentiment, dispersion is increasing across the sector, creating opportunities for experienced lenders to deploy capital selectively at improved terms,” the technology-focused letter reads.
Blue Owl, which is unique in having two of these non-traded private credit funds, is also among the last to report redemptions. The firm’s percentage of redemptions is multiples higher than its peers.
Most firms have opted to use the 5% cap, but some, including Cliffwater and Blackstone allowed slightly more redemptions.
Blue Owl’s OTIC technology fund saw redemption requests of 17% in the fourth quarter, which it fulfilled. OCIC’s requests were 5% in the fourth quarter.
The two funds previously drew interest from hedge funds Saba and Cox, which extended tender offers to locked-up holders at a steep discount.
Blue Owl said in the most-recent quarter, its tech fund’s redemption requests were amplified by a more concentrated shareholder base, particularly within certain wealth channels and regions. For its flagship fund, the firm said the activity was driven by a “small minority of the investor base,” with 90% of shareholders electing not to tender.
Both funds saw gross inflows, which combined with the 5% gates resulted in modest net outflows.
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