{"text":[[{"start":9.05,"text":"Wealthy individuals cut back on new investments to private equity funds in the first quarter, underlining how worries about valuations and credit quality are spreading across the wider private capital sector. "}],[{"start":20.6,"text":"Two of the biggest firms, KKR and Ares, brought in less money to their evergreen private equity vehicles in the quarter than a year ago, an FT analysis of data from RA Stanger shows, despite intense marketing efforts by the industry. "}],[{"start":35.2,"text":"Data from the investment bank show new commitments to US evergreen private equity or venture capital funds sector-wide fell 2 per cent from the fourth quarter, and were up just 2 per cent on a year earlier. That compared with a 55 per cent year-on-year increase at the start of last year. "}],[{"start":52.550000000000004,"text":"Large private capital firms have raced to launch evergreen funds — also called semi-liquid funds, because they allow investors to withdraw their money at regular intervals rather than having it locked up for years — to attract cash from individuals at a time when institutional investors were already cooling on the sector."}],[{"start":70.65,"text":"Retail fundraising has centred on private credit, but in the past few years some of the biggest groups also launched products that invest in private equity and other asset classes. "}],[{"start":null,"text":"
"}],[{"start":81.30000000000001,"text":"The data from RA Stanger show the sharpest fall in private credit inflows, with fundraising down 30 per cent from both the fourth quarter and a year earlier. "}],[{"start":90.70000000000002,"text":"But they also show that, despite private credit being the focus of problems in the retail market with Blue Owl permanently halting redemptions at its inaugural retail fund and writedowns at other firms, fundraising in other asset classes has also suffered. "}],[{"start":106.20000000000002,"text":"“What’s happening on the credit side . . . of course flows into the other asset classes”, EQT executive Gustav Segerberg told shareholders in the Swedish buyout giant last month. "}],[{"start":119.25000000000001,"text":"RA Stanger chief executive Kevin Gannon said private capital fundraising was on course to decline this year if the first-quarter trends continued. "}],[{"start":129.5,"text":"“The outflow of capital from private credit is leading an overall decline in fundraising for alternative investments, now running at a pace of $180bn for 2026 as compared to $211bn in 2025,” he said."}],[{"start":145,"text":"Fears over the impact of AI on software companies were a major driver of mounting investor requests earlier this year to withdraw from the private credit vehicles that had lent heavily to them, but so far vehicles with equity exposure to the sector have not faced similar pressure."}],[{"start":162.25,"text":"Segerberg said EQT had record net inflows into its funds that offer private equity, infrastructure and real estate to individual investors in the quarter. But he added: “I am 100 per cent sure that we would have had more than a billion [euros] in this quarter had we not had the private credit issue.” "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":180.8,"text":"Data from RA Stanger suggests that inflows to Blackstone’s private equity vehicle slowed along with Ares’ and KKR’s. But Blackstone said the figures were distorted by money raised previously and then released from escrow in the first quarters of 2024 and 2025. "}],[{"start":197.55,"text":"Excluding the escrow funds, Blackstone said it had raised more in the first quarter of each successive year, including 2026. "}],[{"start":205.9,"text":"Infrastructure and real estate vehicles withstood the slowdown, however, with quarterly inflows to evergreen property funds up more than 25 per cent on the previous year. "}],[{"start":215.85,"text":"KKR, Ares and Brookfield all reported sales growth in both asset classes, with Ares telling shareholders this month that it had experienced “accelerating demand . . . outside of US private credit”."}],[{"start":228.4,"text":"KKR and Ares declined to comment. "}],[{"start":238.55,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1778396742_7268.mp3"}