Blue Owl's institutional fundraising hit a record $8.3 billion, and redemption requests at its flagship retail credit fund fell again. Ares took in $31 billion of gross commitments, but its deployment dropped to $34.8 billion from $41.7 billion.
Money is still pouring into private credit. Finding places to lend it is getting harder.
That is the picture from the first big private-markets managers to report third-quarter results. Fundraising was strong, wealth-channel worries eased, and the pace of lending slowed.
Blue Owl: institutions step up
Blue Owl raised $12.6 billion of new capital commitments in the quarter and $48.8 billion over the past 12 months. Of $10.2 billion raised for its equity strategies, institutions contributed $8.3 billion, which the company called a "record institutional capital raising quarter," while private wealth clients added $1.9 billion. Assets under management reached $330 billion. Fee-related earnings were $427.5 million, or 27 cents a share, and it declared a 23-cent dividend.
The retail side also stabilized. On its call, Blue Owl said redemption requests at its flagship non-traded credit fund declined for a second straight quarter, and that more than 90% of the fund's roughly 90,000 holders are fully invested.
Blue Owl shares rose about 6% to about $10.26 in early afternoon.
Ares: commitments up, deployment down
Ares Management reported gross commitments of $31.0 billion, including $15.2 billion in credit, of which $7.2 billion was U.S. direct lending, $11.2 billion in real assets and $2.6 billion in secondaries. Assets under management rose 16% to $690.6 billion, and fee-related earnings were $524.2 million. The company expects another record fundraising year.
Deployment, the money Ares actually invested, was $34.8 billion, down from $41.7 billion a year earlier, a decline of about 17%, by our arithmetic. Its U.S. direct lending business committed about $6.3 billion across 55 deals.
Ares has also drawn about $8 billion for the first close of its flagship U.S. senior direct lending strategy, including its first open-ended institutional fund of that kind, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Ares shares rose about 1.9%.
CVC sets a target
In Europe, CVC Capital Partners said fee-paying assets reached 177 billion euros, up 24% including its acquisition of Marathon and 11% organically. It set an initial target of 26 billion euros for its tenth flagship buyout fund and said it has "high confidence" it will match or exceed the size of its predecessor. CVC shares rose about 2.8% in Amsterdam.
Defaults are not the problem, yet
The credit backdrop is supportive. Proskauer's private credit default index fell to 2.41% in the third quarter from 2.51%, the second straight decline. Direct-lending fundraising reached $129.15 billion in the first nine months of 2026, up 35%, according to DLA Piper and Preqin.
Too much money, too few loans?
The strength view: institutions are committing at a record pace, retail redemptions are easing, defaults are falling, and managers expect a record fundraising year.
The pressure view: commitments are rising while deployment falls, which can mean more capital chasing fewer deals. That can push lending terms in borrowers' favor and may compress returns for the funds raising money now.
What to watch
Subsequent closes for Ares' direct lending fund, Apollo's results on Nov. 3, KKR's on Nov. 9, redemption trends at non-traded credit funds, and whether deployment picks up as deal activity, including large take-privates like ADT's, recovers.