{"id":11,"date":"2026-04-03T14:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moneysavingexpertus.info\/?p=11"},"modified":"2026-04-03T15:42:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:42:47","slug":"blue-owl-restricted-withdrawals-from-two-of-its-funds-following-a-historic-surge-in-withdrawal-requests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moneysavingexpertus.info\/?p=11","title":{"rendered":"Blue Owl restricted withdrawals from two of its funds following a historic surge in withdrawal requests."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Blue Owl (OWL.N) informed investors on Thursday that it had limited withdrawals from two of its funds following record-level redemption requests in the first quarter. Concerns related to artificial intelligence led to investors exiting the technology-focused fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Private credit companies like Blue Owl are feeling the pressure from the recent market downturn, leading some investors to pull back from these investments due to concerns about valuations and credit standards following several high-profile bankruptcies. Founded in 2021, Blue Owl has become a symbol of private credit funds struggling with high redemption rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anxious investors are indiscriminately selling everything with heavy exposure to the software sector due to the threat posed by developments in artificial intelligence to disrupt all sectors of the economy. The company had previously stated that about 8% of its approximately $300 billion in assets was invested in software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to various calculations, Blue Owl investors were asked to withdraw $5.4 billion in shares between two funds in the first quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the latest example added to the growing list of firms like KKR, Apollo, and BlackRock that have restricted buybacks in recent weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday’s news brought Blue Owl shares down to an all-time low in midday trading. The stock has been losing value for months and has lost nearly half of its market value since the beginning of 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shares of other private equity managers, including Ares (ARES.N), Apollo Global (APO.N), Blackstone (BX.N), and Carlyle (CG.O), also fell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNPRECEDENTED WITHDRAWALS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Investors asked to withdraw 40.7% of shares in the $6.2 billion technology-focused Blue Owl Technology Income Corp (OTIC) fund, and 21.9% of shares in the $36 billion Blue Owl Credit Income Corp (OCIC) fund, according to preliminary data released by the company. Those percentages rank among the highest quarterly redemption requests the industry has ever seen, \u200ba person familiar with the matter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The firm said it plans to only fill 5% of the requests, saying there was a “meaningful disconnect” between public sentiment on private credit \u200bfunds and the underlying performance of its portfolio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s another reminder about how illiquid this sector is,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist of CFRA Research in New York. He said retail investors thinking \u200cabout investing \u2060in private equity may want to think twice<\/em><\/strong>. \u201cIt is a sector that is meant for professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Don’t try this at home. Private credit does not have the kind of liquidity that public markets would have and it\u2019s very difficult to get the money out as quickly as you might want it,” Stovall said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The funds, structured as what are known as business development companies (BDCs), raise equity and pair it with leverage to finance loans, mainly to mid-sized companies. Some of them trade on public markets, where investors can buy and sell shares. Non-traded funds like Blue \u200bOwl’s give investors quarterly opportunities to withdraw \u200ba portion of their holdings, which \u2060is usually capped at 5% of shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAST REDEMPTION LIMITS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the last quarter, Blue Owl preferred to allow OTIC shareholders to repurchase 15.4% of their shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CEO of the funds, Craig Packer, said in two updates to shareholders, “In the first quarter of 2026, there was an increase in bidding activities in the non-public BDC sector; this reflects a period of heightened negative sentiment toward the asset class, intensified by peers announcing bidding results.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blue Owl stated that the decline in the software sector has created opportunities to add to its portfolio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Markets had reacted to some of Blue Owl’s previous plans regarding its BDCs, particularly the proposal to merge a publicly traded vehicle with a private version last year and to finance payments by selling assets instead of quarterly buybacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concentration of redemption requests among a small number of investors (1% of OCIC shareholders, who account for the majority of redemption requests) suggests that this exit is driven more by institutional investors or asset management clients rather than widespread retail panic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blue Owl stated that negative sentiment is more severe in technology funds with a smaller shareholder base and greater exposure to the software sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said, “Increasing market concerns regarding software companies related to artificial intelligence have significantly affected investors’ perceptions of software-related credit risks.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blue Owl (OWL.N) informed investors on Thursday that it had limited withdrawals from two of its funds following record-level redemption requests in the first quarter. Concerns related to artificial intelligence led to investors exiting the technology-focused fund. Private credit companies like Blue Owl are feeling the pressure from the recent market downturn, leading some investors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","category-international-finance-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moneysavingexpertus.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moneysavingexpertus.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moneysavingexpertus.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneysavingexpertus.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneysavingexpertus.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/moneysavingexpertus.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14,"href":"https:\/\/moneysavingexpertus.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions\/14"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneysavingexpertus.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moneysavingexpertus.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneysavingexpertus.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moneysavingexpertus.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}