Blackstone Inc.'s flagship private credit fund posted its first monthly loss in more than three years, one of the clearest signs yet of weakening performance in the $1.8 trillion market.
The $83 billion fund, known as BCRED, lost 0.4% in February, according to its website. It was the first monthly decline since September 2022. Performance was flat for the first two months of the year after an 8% gain in 2025, the website shows.
Blackstone told investors its February loss reflected wider spreads across public and private markets, as well as unrealized marks on individual names including Medallia, according to a message to financial advisers seen by Bloomberg.
In the message, reported earlier by the Financial Times, Blackstone pointed out that the fund outperformed the leveraged loan market by around 0.4 percentage points in February and 1 percentage point since the start of the year, which it said underscored the benefits of private credit during volatile markets.
"BCRED continues to deliver strong performance for its investors, with a 9.5% annualized total return since inception for Class I shares," a spokesperson for the firm said in an emailed statement. The fund was set up in January 2021.
BCRED is among a number of private credit vehicles that have faced elevated redemptions in recent quarters, amid concerns about valuations and underwriting standards in credit markets, as well as the potential for artificial intelligence to disrupt software businesses.
Blackstone disclosed in February that it had marked down the value of its loan to Medallia Inc., a software company owned by Thoma Bravo, to 78 cents on the dollar. The loan has become a weak spot for private credit lenders, exposing sharp differences in valuations across managers.
The alternative asset manager also took the unusual step of using its own cash as well as contributions from senior leaders to meet redemption requests for BCRED that exceeded the fund's previously set limit of 5% of net assets.
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