By Isla Binnie
NEW YORK, May 28 (Reuters) – Apollo Global Management President Jim Zelter said on Thursday he expects wealthy individuals to keep trying to withdraw their money from some private credit funds after several months of outflows from the vehicles.
Investors pulled out more money than they put in early this year from a type of fund that is mainly aimed at the retail market and lends to midsized companies. This came as doubts arose over private credit broadly, linked to loan valuations, and how borrowers would manage disruption from artificial intelligence.
“I don’t think it was a one-shot,” Zelter said at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference in New York, referring to the redemptions.
While the funds’ underlying performance was “solid” in March, April and May, he said he would not expect a “dramatic decrease” in the rate of people trying to exit, as managers of those funds typically offer to buy back up to 5% per quarter.
He said there “may be even a little bit of an increase if people want to game the system,” and added, “we are not through the turbulence yet.”
Zelter said investors in certain parts of the world, who access the funds through different channels, were proving “stickier” than others.
“We’re learning … who are our longer-term friends and who are the shorter-term tourists,” he said.
(Reporting by Isla Binnie in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
