Ares Management Corp. curbed withdrawals from one of its private credit funds for the second consecutive quarter after redemption requests rose to 14.4%, the latest sign that the $1.8 trillion industry remains under pressure.
The $22.6 billion Ares Strategic Income Fund said it would allow investors to take out 5% of their shares, according to a filing Thursday. In line with most of its peers, the fund saw demand for cash accelerate from the first quarter, when investors asked to redeem 11.6%.
Nearly half of the repurchase requests came from smaller institutions and family offices based mostly outside the US, the fund said in a letter to shareholders. These investors represented less than 1% of its more than 20,000 shareholders. Almost two-thirds of the requests were submitted by investors who had asked for money back in the prior quarter, it added.
Asset managers including Apollo Global Management Inc., BlackRock Inc. and Cliffwater Inc. saw redemption requests swell in the second quarter, as investors who were blocked earlier in the year tried again to get their cash out.
The Ares fund said unfulfilled repurchase requests for the second quarter could be “largely satisfied” by the end of the year, assuming future demand is in line with the prior quarter’s outstanding requests.
The fund also highlighted the “continued conviction of US private wealth investors” in the vehicle, pointing to a decline in new redemption requests from those clients, who it said accounted for nearly half of the inflows in the second quarter.
“Repurchase requests from investors in the US private wealth channel, the largest segment of ASIF’s investor base, represented only 2.4% of common shares outstanding,” it said in the letter. “This reflects a greater than 35% decline in new repurchase requests relative to the prior quarter.”
The Ares fund said it posted annualized total returns of 10.3% since it was launched, representing a 1.87% premium over bank loans syndicated to public market investors.
Written by: Olivia Fishlow @Bloomberg
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