Some investors are souring on private credit, and BlackStone’s largest private credit fund, Bcred, has seen outflows top inflows by a record $1.7 billion. And wouldn’t you know it, at the same time BlackStone is having issues, the company’s President & COO, Jonathan Gray, is looking to reshape it for the “Retail crowd.” That’s you, by the way. Bloomberg explains:
Gray told Bloomberg the firm’s push for retail investors in private equity was an effort to provide a better product to the investors. He said, “When McDonald’s opened up and went to other countries, they didn’t say, ‘Oh, it’s because America’s no longer a good place to have McDonald’s.’”
Now Gray is shoring up confidence in BlackStone’s products, telling the WSJ Invest Live conference in February, “Private credit is healthy. The difference between the headlines and the reality we see in our portfolio is quite stark.”
That’s a marked shift in tone from the first interview to the conference.
Action Line: Your Survival Guy is not against private equity or private credit. What I am wary of is private assets being dumped into 401(k) portfolios, where owners have few options in order to give institutional investors a dumping ground for investments they no longer want to hold. That’s why you need to be diligent about inspecting your 401(k) holdings, and if you don’t have options you like, rolling those over into an IRA that gives you a wider array of possibilities for investment. When you need help with your rollover, email me at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com.
Read the entire series here.
