Apollo is the latest private credit investor to limit redemptions to investors in the first quarter amid growing anxieties over non-bank lending.
The private credit fund, Apollo Debt Solutions BDC, received redemptions from 11.2% of outstanding shares in the first quarter, according to an SEC filing.
The fund has a net asset value of about $14.5 billion, and the total amount of requested redemptions is more than $1.5 billion.
Apollo joins peers Blackstone, Blue Owl, BlackRock, and Morgan Stanley in seeing record redemption requests in their non-traded business development companies marketed to retail investors.
Unlike some of its competitors, which paid out above the typical 5% redemption gates, Apollo chose to cap payouts.
The fund gated these requests to just 5%, or roughly $730 million, in keeping with the vehicles’ “designated liquidity objectives,” the filing said. It is paying investors back on a pro-rated basis, providing each redeeming investor with 45% of the requested capital. The vehicle saw $724 million in inflows in the same period.
In a letter sent to shareholders, the firm noted that “the start of 2026 has brought heightened market volatility and increased scrutiny to private credit,” with concerns about liquidity management, valuation, and the impact of software on business models.
It explained that 5% gates on quarterly liquidity are “an intentional feature of non-traded BDCs,” providing context for the firm’s decision to gate redemptions rather than fulfill all requests.
The letter said that Apollo’s longtime expertise in these matters and the BDC’s focus on senior secured loans with large corporate borrowers “position” the fund well in the current environment.
“With that said, we expect to see more performance dispersion among BDCs over the coming quarters,” the letter said, adding that the fund is “prepared for this cycle and positioned beyond it.”
The fund, with a portfolio of $25 billion in assets, was “consciously” created to be “underweight software exposure relative to the broader private credit markets,” and the letter said it has 20% to 30% less exposure than peers.
Much of the concern about private credit has focused on the industry’s investments in software companies that could be at risk of AI disruption.
“If 30% of your portfolio is in one industry and that one industry is being impacted by technology, you have not been a good risk manager,” Apollo CEO Marc Rowan said at a conference earlier this month, comparing the firm’s decision not to invest too much in software to competitors.
Correction: March 23, 2026 — the headline has been updated to reflect that the redemption activity was capped, not stopped entirely.
