NEW YORK, June 9 - Blackstone reported a pickup in money coming from individual investors in June after seeing a slowdown across April and May, the firm's president and chief operating officer said on Tuesday at the Morgan Stanley U.S. Financials Conference in New York.
Jon Gray said the firm tracked a marked change in flows between the start of April and the start of June. "In the April and May period, April 1, May 1, we saw a slowdown, and yet by June 1 we were up 50%, back to the levels we were in the first quarter," he told the conference audience.
The comments highlighted a split in demand across private strategies. According to Gray, private credit products aimed at high-net-worth investors experienced more withdrawals than new commitments early in the year - a milestone described as occurring for the first time ever.
"We have lower flows in credit right now, given the noise, but when you look in private equity, June 1 we had the greatest, the best inflows we had since we launched the product," Gray said.
The situation described by Gray aligns with reports from other industry participants indicating heightened investor activity around liquidity requests. Switzerland-based Partners Group recently connected a rise in investor withdrawal requests from private equity funds to spillover concerns originating in private credit markets.
Gray emphasized a distinction in investor appetite between credit and equity strategies. He characterized credit flows as reduced amid ongoing noise, while noting private equity fundraising for individual investors reached peak levels for that product as of June 1.
Contextual notes from the remarks:
- Blackstone observed a slowdown in inflows at the start of April and May, followed by a recovery by June 1 to levels comparable with the first quarter.
- Private credit funds for wealthy individuals registered net redemptions relative to new commitments at the beginning of this year for the first time on record.
- Partners Group has linked increased withdrawal requests in private equity to concerns spilling over from private credit.