Blue Owl Capital is considering revisiting a proposed merger between its publicly traded Blue Owl Capital Corporation (OBDC), and its privately held sibling, Blue Owl Capital Corporation II, contingent on an improvement in OBDC’s share price so that the fund is not trading at a discount to its net asset value, according to a report by Reuters citing people familiar with the matter.
The sources cautioned that the planned merger of the two private credit funds, originally shelved on 19 November amid investor backlash over proposed redemption gates and valuation concerns, is not yet live, and they did not provide further detail on timings.
Blue Owl’s executives, in public comments, have denied that the merger is actively back on the table. Nonetheless, the firm said on Wednesday that it still saw merit in the proposed deal, and planned to re-evaluate options for the funds in the future.
A possible timing constraint is the privately held fund’s scheduled liquidity event by the end of April 2026 or April 2027. The revival of the merger would therefore likely need to be executed prior to that window.
Sources added that the deal would also be contingent on an increase in the share price, such that the OBDC fund is not trading at a discount to its net asset value.
