Blackstone
president Jon Gray on Tuesday defended the quality of loans within the firm’s flagship private credit fund after investors pulled nearly 8% from it in the last quarter.
The alternative asset management giant said in a late Monday filing that it allowed investors to withdraw 7.9% of BCRED, which it calls the largest private credit fund in the world, with about $82 billion invested. Blackstone did so in part by allowing the firm’s own investors to plow $150 million into the fund.
The move sparked a sell-off in Blackstone shares, which fell as much as about 8.5% in morning trading Tuesday, as well as in other private credit peers.
“When you think about credit quality, the 400-plus borrowers here, they had 10% EBITDA growth last year,” Gray told CNBC’s David Faber, using a term referring to a company’s financial performance. “So when we look at this, we feel pretty darn good.”
