<div id="readability-page-1">Blackstone executives expressed confidence in the private credit market during their Q1 2026 earnings call, aiming to reassure investors and ease concerns. The private credit sector has been under fire in recent weeks as investors are concerned about default risks, high interest rates, and the disruption AI may have on the software sector. This has led to increased redemption requests in various private credit companies’ portfolios. Blackstone's private credit fund, BCRED, saw unusually high redemptions of $3.7 billion in the first quarter, driven primarily by larger investors. “The great mass by number of smaller investors tends to stick with the product over a long period of time. It’s sort of the bigger boulders as opposed to the pebbles, where you get ‌more movement ⁠in terms of redemptions,” Blackstone Chief Operating Officer (COO) Jonathan Gray said during the call. Gray also addressed concerns about software and artificial intelligence. When asked whether AI is weighing on software spreads—particularly amid the widening in private credit—and how to manage the associated risk, he said that &#34;the market has held up much better than the headlines.&#34; Gray added that it has been &#34;more challenging&#34; to contend with the social media and press reporting surrounding private credit redemptions, which he said is &#34;so different from the facts that we see.&#34; &#34;When you think about these products, they are not sold directly to individual investors; they are sold through financial advisers who are obviously sophisticated. There are incredible levels of disclosure when we are selling these products. To me, it is not a surprise that we have more than 300,000 customers, and yet, we have not heard complaints from them that they do not understand that they are trading away some liquidity for higher returns,&#34; Gray said. The firm stated that its private credit platform outperformed, despite adverse macro environments. &#34;Turning to private credit, where it is worthwhile to separate fact from fiction. External assertions have ranged from the sector posing systemic risk to the prospect of significant losses of investor capital. These assertions and their dissemination have negatively impacted capital flows in the wealth channel to private credit strategies, including to our flagship vehicle in the space, BCRED,&#34; said Stephen Schwarzman, CEO and co-founder of Blackstone. Schwartzman also cited prior comments from the Treasury Secretary and the Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, noting that private credit does not pose a systemic risk. &#34;We believe we are moving toward a period of lower base rates once we work through the impact of the Iran war. And we also expect defaults to move higher from historic lows,” Schwarzman said. During the first quarter, Blackstone's investment-grade private credit platform grew 23% year over year approximately $130 billion, and has generated a 9.4% annual net return since inception. Overall, Blackstone saw a 12% year-over-year increase in assets under management, totalling $1.3 trillion, with $68.5 billion of inflows in the quarter and $246.3 billion in the last twelve months. Blackstone’s stock value (BX) has declined by 23% year-to-date. As of April 23, the stock was down 6.43% on the month. Photo: Shutterstock</div>

黑石集團

HYIN

在 2026 年第一季度的財報電話會議上，黑石集團高管對私人信貸市場表示信心，回應了關於違約風險和高利率的擔憂。儘管其私人信貸基金 BCRED 出現了 37 億美元的贖回，首席運營官 Jonathan Gray 指出，市場表現好於負面頭條所暗示的情況。首席執行官 Stephen Schwarzman 強調，私人信貸並不構成系統性風險，並指出其投資級私人信貸平台的年增長率達到了 23%。黑石集團的管理資產增加了 12%，達到了 1.3 萬億美元，儘管其股票價值年初至今已下降了 23%

黑石集團表示，私人信貸的表現比頭條新聞所暗示的要好