Redemption pressure is still building across North American private credit, even as KKR's non-traded fund for wealthy clients outside the US saw a lighter touch in Q3. An early 2026 selloff in US non-traded business development companies started when investors worried that artificial intelligence could dent software borrowers, a key slice of the market. Months on, the biggest vehicles are still limiting exits.
Thursday saw the Blackstone Private Credit Fund impose a cap following roughly 10% in repurchase requests. Cliffwater Corporate Lending Fund likewise put limits in place when investors sought to pull about 16%.
In July, Bloomberg tallied that second quarter exit requests stranded more than $14.5 billion across over a dozen funds, while $8.6 billion actually made it back to shareholders.
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KKR-Income Trust I serves clients in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, plus the Asia-Pacific region. Investors sought withdrawals equal to about 2.5% of NAV for Q3. In Q2 the vehicle reached its 5% limit, with $10.5 million of withdrawals still in the queue at that time.
It now expects to meet requests totaling $34.7 million, including those carried over from the prior quarter. A KKR representative declined to comment.
The fund reported a 1.9% gain for Q2 and an aggregate average NAV around $1.4 billion as that period ended. Since inception, it noted an annualized net total return of 10.3%. As the fund put it, "These results are no accident.
This is the private credit story in two lines: cash is still trying to leave the room, and many doors are partially closed. KKR's smoother Q3 shows not every fund is seeing the same strain, but industrywide gates and queued withdrawals have not gone away. If you hold or are eyeing semi-liquid vehicles, the key variables are simple enough to track from the outside: how often the fund hits its cap, how much is being carried forward, and whether performance is holding up while liquidity is managed.
