Blackstone restricts flagship fund withdrawals as private asset fears reemerge

The asset management giant capped investor withdrawals from the $79 billion non-traded business development company at 5% of shares, after redemption requests hit 10% during the second quarter.

It comes as U.S. private markets giants sold off on Wednesday after Switzerland’s Partners Group said it was curbing redemption requests in one of its European private equity vehicles.

Partners Group said on Thursday it was prepared to restrict withdrawals in more of its funds, warning that the spike in client withdrawals is now spreading from private credit into private equity.

Shares in Blackstone were up 1.6% in premarket trade on Thursday.

BCRED is one of the first major semi-liquid private credit vehicles updating on investor redemption requests during the second quarter.

The cap comes after BCRED saw client redemption requests jump to a then-record of 7.9%, or about $3.8 billion, in the first quarter.

Blackstone fulfilled 100% of those requests by raising its quarterly cap and using employee capital to cover the remaining amount.

The fund drew inflows of about $1 billion during the first quarter, but ultimately recorded a net capital outflow after covering withdrawals.

— CNBC’s Leslie Picker contributed to this story.

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