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Blue Owl Capital said investors committed $9bn to its funds in the first quarter, its lowest capital haul in a year, as fatigue around private credit cooled interest for some of its flagship vehicles.
The private credit-focused investment manager said its assets under management rose to $315bn at the end of March, just short of Wall Street forecasts.
Inflows at the start of the year are often low, and Blue Owl noted its fundraising haul in the quarter was more than a third higher than a year before.
The firm has been in the eye of the storm brewing around private credit, with redemption requests surging at several of the flagship funds pitched to wealthy individuals. Blue Owl permanently gated withdrawals from one fund earlier this year as it moved to wind down the vehicle.
Even as the company continued to draw new clients into its funds, redemptions from some funds and the repayment on a number of loans it had originated limited the growth of the assets it can charge management fees on. Investment groups such as Blue Owl typically only collect management fees on the cash they have deployed.
So-called fee-paying assets under management rose about $700mn from the end of 2025 to $188bn, Blue Owl said on Thursday, below the $192bn analysts had forecast.
The pullback from private credit has hit the entire industry, as investors raise questions about the quality of loans made to private equity-backed software companies seen as vulnerable to advances in AI.
The $2tn industry had been at the forefront financing those software deals, with Blue Owl in the centre of the action with a handful of technology-focused private credit funds.
Investors have pummelled the New York-headquartered group’s stock. Blue Owl shares are down roughly 40 per cent this year, trading below the $10 price it listed at when the asset manager went public through a Spac deal in 2021.
The company said its overall revenues continued to rise, bolstered by the management fees it charged on its funds. Overall fee-related revenues climbed 13 per cent from the same period last year to $700mn, while fee-related earnings increased 14 per cent to $394mn. Both figures eclipsed Wall Street expectations.
“Our financial results reflect stability, stemming from our durable capital base, and growth, driven by fundraising and ongoing capital deployment,” said Blue Owl co-chief executives Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz in a statement.
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