The gap points to two shifts underway in the business development company sector. Retail investors are increasingly realizing that exiting these vehicles takes far longer than getting into them, pushing more to request withdrawals.
Meanwhile, fund managers are preparing for an extended stretch of heavy redemptions. Blackstone, which met all redemption requests in the first quarter, has since capped withdrawals at 5% to protect capital for future demand.
Requests jumped across most major managers, including Apollo Global Management, Ares Management and BlackRock’s HPS credit arm, all of which had been relatively insulated earlier in the year.
Blue Owl, long the largest seller of these funds to individual investors, saw requests ease slightly to 19% of shares outstanding from 22%, still the highest ratio among its peers. Oaktree Capital Management bucked the trend, with requests falling to 4.5% of shares from 8.5%, helped by rising net asset value and a clean loan book.
New fundraising across the industry also stalled, with just $500 million raised in May, the weakest month in at least a year and a half and roughly 75% below already soft January levels.