Brown University cuts stake in Blue Owl private credit fund by over 50%

May 1 (Reuters) – Brown University’s $8 billion endowment has reduced its stake in the publicly traded private loan fund managed by alternative asset manager Blue Owl Capital by about 53%, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.

The Ivy League institution reduced its stake in Blue Owl Capital Corp, the firm’s largest publicly traded private credit fund, to 1.5 million shares at the end of March 31, compared to 3.2 million shares at the end of 2025, according to its 13-F filing.

However, the university retained all of the approximately 2.6 million shares in the management company.

Publicly traded BDCs, such as OBDC, are trading at steep discounts as investors become skeptical of valuations and increasing stress in the private credit sector.

While institutional investors continue to show a strong appetite for private credit overall, retail investors and wealthy individuals have pulled out of the multi-trillion-dollar asset class due to negative headlines that have led to intense scrutiny on the sector in recent months.

Insurance giant AIG said on Friday that it was scaling back its private lending activities given current market conditions.

OBDC, which launched in 2016, is one of Blue Owl’s publicly traded business development companies. Its investor base includes corporate and individual customers.

BDCs are investment vehicles that offer investors ownership in a diversified pool of private credit assets.

Brown’s portfolio spans asset classes such as public equity, real assets and private equity. The endowment recorded a return on investment of 11.9% in fiscal 2025.

13-F filings detail what investment firms held in U.S. stocks at the end of the previous quarter. They look back but are closely watched for indicators of investment trends. (Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)