Private Credit Can’t Stop the ‘Freak Out’

For months, the private credit industry has tried to quell widespread concerns about the soundness of their loans. And in an indication that its top executives thought their persuasions were working, Marc Lipschultz, a co-chief executive of the industry giant Blue Owl, said in late May that the “freak out” moment had passed.

Well, the latest results from Blue Owl on Thursday showed that investors were not done worrying about private credit, once the prize pig of Wall Street.

Blue Owl said it received requests to withdraw as much as 38 percent from one private credit fund focused on software and technology companies. Another, larger fund saw 19 percent of investor money try to leave.

Those figures were barely lower than the tally from one quarter earlier, 41 percent and 22 percent. That’s despite a global effort by Blue Owl executives in the past few months to convince backers to stay with the firm.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/02/business/private-credit-withdrawals.html