Blue Owl Capital (NYSE:OWL) reported first-quarter 2026 results marked by higher year-over-year revenue and earnings, continued fundraising momentum across its three platforms, and what executives described as resilient portfolio performance amid heightened investor scrutiny of private credit.
Quarterly results and dividend
Ann Dai, Managing Director and Head of Investor Relations, said the firm posted fee-related earnings (FRE) of $0.25 per share and distributable earnings (DE) of $0.19 per share for the quarter. The company declared a $0.23 per share dividend for the first quarter, payable May 27 to holders of record as of May 13.
Fundraising: $11 billion in the quarter, $57 billion over 12 months
Lipschultz said Blue Owl raised $57 billion over the last 12 months—its “second-highest capital raised since inception”—including $11 billion in the first quarter, which he said equated to roughly 14% annualized on the firm’s AUM at the end of 2025.
He said institutional capital represented about two-thirds of total equity raised, totaling $6.1 billion from roughly 80 institutional investors. By platform, he said 47% of those commitments went to credit, 40% to real assets, and 13% to GP Strategic Capital. He added that Blue Owl brought in 33 new institutional clients and saw 14 existing investors commit to new strategies.
In private wealth, Lipschultz said the firm raised about $3 billion of equity in the quarter, primarily across net lease, direct lending, alternative credit, and digital infrastructure. He also highlighted stronger wealth demand for real assets, saying Blue Owl raised over $7 billion in wealth for real assets over the last 12 months—“a 2.5 times increase” from the prior 12-month period.
Chief Financial Officer Alan Kirshenbaum said the first quarter is typically seasonally lighter for fundraising, but equity capital raised still grew 35% versus the year-ago quarter. He added that management fees increased 13% year-over-year and that FRE margin expanded slightly to 58.4% versus 58.3% for 2025.
Kirshenbaum also said AUM not yet paying fees increased to $30 billion, representing approximately $350 million of expected annual management fees once deployed, which he described as about 14% “embedded growth” off 2025 management fees.
Private credit scrutiny and net outflows in non-traded BDCs
Management addressed industry attention on private credit and redemption activity in non-traded vehicles. Lipschultz said Blue Owl’s approach with clients has been to “answer those questions with facts,” adding that “fundamental performance remains strong and portfolios remain strong.”
He said net outflows of roughly $170 million from the firm’s non-traded BDCs OCIC and OTIC were “less than 6 basis points” of beginning-of-period AUM, and noted those two funds together are less than 17% of total AUM. He added that at OCIC, redemption requests were concentrated, with 1% of investors representing a majority of tenders and about 90% of the investor base not tendering.
On the real assets side in private wealth, Lipschultz said gross repurchases in the net lease non-traded REIT ORENT were less than $134 million versus $1.1 billion of inflows, resulting in about $1 billion of net inflows for the quarter.
In response to questions on wealth sentiment, Kirshenbaum said financial advisors generally want the non-traded BDC tender mechanism “to work as designed,” pointing to liquidity from portfolio paydowns. As an example, he said OCIC paydowns were “almost $3 billion this quarter” versus “gross redemptions at $1 billion,” describing the portfolio as “three times covered” before considering fundraising inflows, DRIP, or other liquidity sources.
Platform updates: credit, real assets, and GP Strategic Capital
Credit. Kirshenbaum said Blue Owl raised $4 billion of equity in credit during the quarter, including about $1 billion in the non-traded BDCs. He said more than $0.5 billion was raised for each of GP-led secondaries, alternative credit, and liquid and investment-grade credit.
During the quarter, Blue Owl held final closes for its GP-led secondaries fund, BOSE, and alternative credit opportunities fund, ASOF IX, at around $3 billion each, both above target. Later on the call, Kirshenbaum quantified BOSE one-time catch-up fees at about $7 million, addressing a question about quarterly fee-rate dynamics.
In direct lending, Kirshenbaum said last-12-month gross originations were $39.4 billion, with net originations of $8.2 billion. He cited first-quarter repayments of $6.4 billion and said repayments totaled over $27 billion in 2025. He also said the firm is beginning to see spreads “at least 50 basis points wider” in the origination pipeline.
On portfolio metrics, Kirshenbaum said there had been “no meaningful adverse movement” in watch lists, non-accruals, amendment requests, or revolver draws. He cited an average annual loss rate of 12 basis points, and said borrowers have delivered last-12-month revenue and EBITDA growth in the “mid to high single digits,” with higher growth in tech lending.
Real assets. Kirshenbaum said Net Lease drove about $3 billion of the $4 billion of real assets equity raised in the quarter, split between wealth and institutional channels. He said Blue Owl had raised $5.8 billion for the latest vintage of its Net Lease flagship and continued to expect to reach the $7.5 billion hard cap by year-end.
He also said deployment in real assets accelerated, increasing more than 100% year-over-year to about $20 billion over the last 12 months. He cited a net lease pipeline of approximately $50 billion in transaction volume under letter of intent or contract to close, and a digital infrastructure pipeline of over $100 billion.
Lipschultz highlighted Blue Owl’s digital infrastructure activity, noting that Amazon recently announced a $12 billion data center campus with investment from Blue Owl’s digital infrastructure funds and development by STACK Infrastructure. He called it the fourth data center project above $10 billion announced in less than 18 months in which Blue Owl will play a “critical role.”
GP Strategic Capital. Lipschultz said Blue Owl held the final close of the first vintage of its GP-led secondaries strategy BOSE “above target” at approximately $3 billion. Kirshenbaum said the GP Strategic Capital platform raised $900 million in the quarter, primarily in the flagship vehicle and co-invest, with the sixth vintage approaching $10 billion inclusive of co-invest. He added that the latest flagship fund is “about 40% committed” toward its target and cited a March investment into Atlas, which he described as “a leading investment platform” in industrial, manufacturing, and distribution.
Performance commentary and risk discussion
Lipschultz said performance “remains resilient” across platforms and cited several return examples discussed on the call, including direct lending gross returns of 8.5% over the last 12 months and alternative credit gross returns of 11% over the same period. He also said the net lease strategy returned 14.7% over the last 12 months. For OCIC, he said the fund delivered a 9.1% annualized return since inception over about five years.
Executives also spent time addressing investor questions about software and tech exposure and the potential maturity wall in 2028 and 2029. Lipschultz said the firm had seen “no material negative developments” in amendments, payment-in-kind (PIK), watch lists, or non-accruals, adding that PIK has been declining as a percentage of the portfolio.
On loan-to-value (LTV) trends, Kirshenbaum said LTVs were in the low 40s across the platform, and that software lending LTVs moved from the low 30s to the low 40s during the quarter. Lipschultz emphasized that the firm receives marks from a third party and said the higher LTVs reflect deterioration in software valuations, while still leaving “a tremendous amount of remaining cushion.”
In a separate Q&A exchange, Lipschultz discussed a SpaceX-related investment as an example of gains that can help offset credit losses. He said the firm made “about 10x” its money, had sold about half of the position at a $1.25 trillion valuation, and still held about half. Kirshenbaum pointed analysts to disclosed net gains since inception for certain funds and said such investments can contribute to net gains versus an expectation of modest net loss rates over time.
Looking ahead, Kirshenbaum reiterated a target of 58.5% FRE margins for 2026 and said the firm has expense levers across compensation and non-compensation costs. He also reaffirmed commitment to paying a $0.92 dividend for 2026 and said the payout ratio is expected to decline over time as the business grows.
About Blue Owl Capital (NYSE:OWL)
Blue Owl Capital is a global alternative asset manager that focuses on private credit, direct lending and equity-related strategies for institutional investors. Headquartered in New York, the firm develops and manages a range of private markets products designed to provide capital solutions to middle-market and larger corporate borrowers, as well as liquidity and partnership arrangements with private equity firms and other alternative managers.
Its core activities include direct lending and credit strategies that provide senior, unitranche and other structured loan products to companies across industries.
