“We have ample liquidity,” says Dan Leiter, head of international at Blackstone Credit & Insurance, on the latest episode of Credit Exchange with Lisa Lee, as he explained the firm’s decision to honour all withdrawal requests at its private credit perpetual fund.“[As a result] it was not an issue to honour the redemption, and we thought it was the right thing to do,” says Leiter. Competitors – some of whom capped redemptions at 5% – made assessments and opted for what was right for their vehicles. “They also have different liquidity profiles. They have different considerations,” he adds.Leiter also addresses whether retail investors understood the terms of these perpetual funds, and says he has heard of no complaints from retail investors about being capped.The negative headlines, which have more of an impact on retail investors, should wane soon. “When we look back in just a few months’ time, I don’t think it will take that long. Everyone will see that actually, the return profile in private credit remains really attractive, especially versus liquid credit,” predicts Leiter, who is also global head of liquid credit at the asset manager, which boasts around $1.3 trillion in AUM.Shifting gears, Leiter says that everything that’s happening around AI is real, and there will be a lot of disruption. But, so far, Leiter says that Blackstone’s credit portfolios are performing well.He isn’t seeing any major stress in Blackstone’s portfolio companies. But “that doesn’t mean there won’t be idiosyncratic defaults here and there,” he cautions.Private credit default rates remain in line with, or even lower than, the publicly-traded leveraged loan market, and Leiter believes recoveries will be higher than for leveraged loans as well.He also discusses opportunities in Asia, investment-grade private credit, and insurance; he also provides insights into growth prospects in the US, Europe and Asia, against the backdrop of the Iran war.

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