Blue Owl Halts Redemptions at Retail Fund, Raising Private Credit Concerns

Private capital firm Blue Owl Capital, which manages more than $307 billion, has permanently stopped investor redemptions at a retail private debt vehicle and will instead pay out cash through periodic distributions tied to asset sales. The firm says quarterly redemptions for Blue Owl Capital Corp II (OBDC II) are no longer available; co‑President Craig Packer told analysts, "We’re not halting redemptions, we are simply changing the method by which we’re providing redemptions." Packer added payouts are expected to be roughly 30% of the fund’s value, up from a prior 5% cap, and Blue Owl said it is "returning six times as much capital and returning it to all shareholders over the next 45 days." Blue Owl also moved to sell about $1.4 billion of assets from three of its credit funds.

Purchasers included Chicago‑based insurer Kuvare, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System and British Columbia Investment Management Corp.; the loans were sold at 99.7% of par value.

blue owl, redemptions, private credit, obdc ii, retail debt, periodic distributions, asset sales, craig packer, calpers, omers