BlackRock Inc. have limited the withdrawal from the $26 billion HPS Corporate Lending Fund (HLEND) to 5 per cent of its net assets. The Gating mechanism was activated following a massive surge in redemption requests at 9.3 per cent of their share, as investors became increasingly wary. This is the first time in 4 years that the fund’s redemption requests have exceeded the 5 per cent limit, hinting at retail anxiety in the private credit industry.
The firm said on Friday that its investor requested redemptions for 9.3 per cent of their shares, totalling approximately $1.2 billion. But the fund has enforced a cap of 5 per cent, effectively paying approximately $620 million to investors, as per the Bloomberg calculation. The firm said it was a “foundational feature” of the fund.
“Without it, there would be a structural mismatch between investor capital and the expected duration of the private credit loans in which HLEND invests,” said the company in a statement. BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager, and the $26 billion HPS Corporate Lending Fund is one of the industry’s largest non-traded business development companies.
Is the withdrawal panic because of the US-Iran war?
The US-Iran conflict is the major contributing factor; also, there were hints of macroeconomic stress with recent weak jobs data in the US. 92,000 jobs were lost in February 2026, and unemployment was at 4.4 per cent. Other funds have taken similar measures, like BlueOwl Capital, which permanently froze all its retail capital redemption, and Black Stone also witnessed record withdrawals in its $82 billion fund. The war puts stress on the oil trade of the Gulf countries, and the Gulf sovereign wealth fund is the backbone of the AI investment, providing long-term capital required to build infrastructure at scale. For example, Abu Dhabi’s Sovereign Wealth Fund is a pivotal player in private credit, where Western Banks have stepped back; it has $100-$200 billion in direct and leveraged AI exposure. Funds like MGX, Mubadala, ADIA and PIF build the backbone of the private credit and AI Infrastructure. BlackRock itself is also structurally intertwined with AI Infrastructure, equity, private credit, commitments and their internal technology, so that any prolonged stress in the oil capital pipeline will create a domino effect.
