Blue Owl BDC's CEO Craig Packer was interviewed by CNBC on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., on November 19, 2025, following a major development in the private credit sector.
Blue Owl, a direct lending firm known for its focus on loans within the software sector, revealed on Wednesday that it had successfully sold $1.4 billion worth of loans to institutional investors at 99.7% of their par value. This transaction implied that seasoned investors had examined the loans and deemed them sound enough to warrant paying nearly the full price, a comforting signal that Packer emphasized during multiple interviews throughout the week.
Contrary to calming investor concerns, the news triggered a drop in shares of Blue Owl and similar alternative asset managers as market participants speculated about potential future implications. Central to these worries was the announcement that Blue Owl would replace voluntary quarterly redemptions with mandatory 'capital distributions', to be financed through future asset sales, earnings, or other transactions.
'The optics are bad, even if the loan book is fine,' commented Brian Finneran of Truist Securities in a Thursday report. He pointed out that investors generally construed the loan sales as a response to accelerated redemptions, necessitating the liquidation of high-quality assets to satisfy these demands.
The move was largely seen as Blue Owl halting redemptions from a stressed fund, though Packer highlighted that investors would receive about 30% of their capital by March 31, far exceeding the previous maximum of 5% per quarter.
'We're not halting redemptions, we're just changing the form,' Packer clarified in his CNBC appearance on Friday. 'If anything, we're accelerating redemptions.'