{"id":951255,"date":"2026-05-10T21:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T21:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/951255\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T21:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T21:41:15","slug":"private-credit-titans-push-to-drop-semiliquid-label","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/951255\/","title":{"rendered":"Private Credit Titans Push to Drop Semiliquid Label"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Bloomberg) — Rivals across the $1.8 trillion private-credit industry are starting to agree on one thing: Stop calling funds \u201csemi-liquid.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was one of the big takeaways as the titans of private markets descended on Beverly Hills for the annual Milken Institute confab, where they made it clear they were ready to move on from private credit\u2019s recent woes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were to make one prediction for the industry \u2014 in particular for private credit \u2014 the word \u2018semi-liquid\u2019 will disappear,\u201d EQT AB Chief Executive Officer Per Franzen said Tuesday. \u201cThese products are not liquid.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s conference arrived at a difficult moment for private credit. Investors have been on edge for months following the abrupt collapses of Tricolor Holdings, First Brands Group and Market Financial Solutions Ltd., which sparked widespread fears about underwriting standards across credit markets.<\/p>\n

Rapid markdowns of some holdings, concerns about how artificial intelligence will disrupt various industries and the war in Iran then spurred a slew of retail investors to flee private credit at an unprecedented pace.<\/p>\n

Related:Private Credit Confronts the Limitations of the Semiliquid Label<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cRetail is a wonderful channel, but you really need to treat it with kid gloves when you are trying to tap that market,\u201d PJT Partners Inc. CEO Paul Taubman said in a Bloomberg Television interview. \u201cThere\u2019s an increasing realization it\u2019s an institutional product, not a retail product.\u201d<\/p>\n

Founded by Michael Milken \u2014 who created the multi-billion-dollar junk bond market in the 1980s before being jailed for securities fraud in the early 1990s \u2014 his eponymous institute\u2019s event has long been the venue where the giants of private capital come to debate the future of their industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With many private credit funds in damage-control mode following months of investor withdrawal requests, this year\u2019s event was even more relevant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure the story is clear: Private markets are illiquid,\u201d Franklin Resources Inc. CEO Jenny Johnson said during a panel at the event. \u201cThat\u2019s just it. You invest in private credit \u2014 it is illiquid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments come just weeks after the US Department of Labor made it easier for companies to offer alternative assets like private credit, private equity, crypto and real estate investments in retirement savings plans, a move that many in the industry hoped would make it easier for firms like\u00a0Blackstone Inc.<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Apollo Global Management Inc.<\/a>\u00a0to gain traction in the $14 trillion market.<\/p>\n

Long the purview of ultra-wealthy individuals, pension plans and insurance companies, proponents of the new rules say alternative assets will help retail investors notch much greater returns than traditional equities over an extended period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related:Apollo to Start Reporting Daily Prices for Private Markets<\/a><\/p>\n

But increasingly, many institutional investors \u201cdo not want to see retail money invested side by side with them,\u201d said Ted Koenig, CEO of the Chicago-based private credit firm Monroe Capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can be the best underwriter in the world, but if you\u2019re told you\u2019ve got to do four times the volume in your portfolio than you have today, something\u2019s going to give,\u201d he said on a panel about private credit in the institutional portfolio. \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m concerned about.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Raoul Hughes, who leads Bridgepoint Group Plc, said he didn\u2019t think that the industry has found the right product yet to use for the retail channel.<\/p>\n

Not all executives expect retail interest to fade. Frederick Pollock, chief investment officer of GCM Grosvenor, said that while retail investors need to better understand what they have bought into, they are absolutely here to stay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you fast forward 10 or 20 years it would be shocking to me if this part of the market isn\u2019t huge, if it doesn\u2019t rival or exceed what you see from the institutional part of the market,\u201d Pollock said.<\/p>\n

Alan Schwartz, a Wall Street veteran who ran Bear Stearns Cos. in its final days, warned that a market downturn won\u2019t be as bad as the financial crisis, but that there\u2019s likely more distress ahead.<\/p>\n

Related:Craft Launches Tailwind Exchange Fund with a Private Aviation Twist<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe recent demands for getting their capital back has put some focus on it,\u201d Schwartz, who is now Guggenheim Partners\u2019 executive chair, said Tuesday in a Bloomberg Television interview. \u201cThere are some tremors in that market.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Bloomberg) — Rivals across the $1.8 trillion private-credit industry are starting to agree on one thing: Stop calling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[51,474,2499,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-951255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-personal-finance","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116552458934856651","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=951255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=951255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=951255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=951255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}