Despite critics warning of a potential private credit bubble, the booming $1.7tn asset class is set for further expansion, according to a report by Bloomberg citing Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman.
While the private credit market has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, private credit is increasingly important to Blackstone, accounting for the biggest gains among the firm’s strategies in the fourth quarter of last year.
Speaking in an interview in Tokyo on Thursday, Schwarzman said: “Our default rate on these types of loans is three tenths of 1%. I don’t know if there’s a bank around that has a default rate that’s lower.
“I have quite good confidence in our ability to do conservative credit extension,” he added, saying that Blackstone’s own direct-lending business will come out of the current economic cycle in a “very strong position.”
