June 4 (Reuters) - Swiss alternative asset manager Partners Group on Thursday flagged more withdrawal requests from its funds while Blackstone said it capped withdrawals at its ​flagship private credit fund, underscoring widening stresses in private funding markets.

Partners is expected to cap a second major investment pool, people familiar with the matter said, a day after its shares plunged on news it had capped a key fund. 

It said repurchase requests at a $16 billion Delaware-based fund had reached 6% of assets held, exceeding the 5% limit it allows each quarter. This means withdrawals would be capped, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The middle-market alternative asset manager, which oversees about $185 billion, said it was being affected by industry-wide volatility across open-ended evergreen funds, starting with private credit and spilling into private equity. Investors are focused on problems appearing in loans by private credit funds run by big asset managers, ⁠scrutinizing valuations, lending standards and how software companies can handle AI challenges.

In a sign of continuing pressure at private credit funds, the world's largest alternative asset manager, Blackstone, capped withdrawals at its ​flagship private credit fund as redemption requests jumped in the second quarter.

Wednesday's news of Partners Group capping redemptions is among the first signs of how stresses in private credit, which typically issues the loans that finance private equity investments, were spreading.

Many of the newer unlisted private credit funds, known as business development companies, are evergreen, meaning they offer investors windows at set intervals to withdraw funds.

"Evergreen is a difficult proposition to fulfill," said Virinchi Narayan, managing director of Dubai-based Three Pins Capital Limited.

"The best approach for these funds has always been and continues to be closed-ended structures. Easy money and the promise of expanding the investor base has provoked a diversification into evergreen and redemption-driven structures - because investors asked for these."

CONTAGION

Redemption windows at key U.S. non-traded private credit funds for the second quarter began closing last Friday, with market participants keeping a close eye on the rate of withdrawal requests. 

Cliffwater was the first to report withdrawal requests at its flagship $31.3 billion private credit fund rose to 17% in the second quarter from 14% in the first quarter.

Investors in the $79 billion Blackstone Private Credit Fund (BCRED) sought to pull 10% of shares in the second-quarter tender offer, compared with 7.9% in the previous quarter. 

Unlike last quarter, when Blackstone and some employees invested to help meet all the requested redemptions, the fund limited withdrawals to 5%, the customary limit for these vehicles.   

"BCRED's structure is a fundamental feature, with investors exchanging some liquidity at times for long-term outperformance," it said in a statement. 

Partners Group said on Wednesday it had limited withdrawals from its $8.6 billion private equity fund after redemption requests at the Luxembourg-based Partners Group Global Value SICAV reached 9.8% of the assets held.

Three other mature evergreen funds, with a total fund size of $9.7 billion, mainly from institutional investors, are estimated to see redemptions between 3.5% and 5%, Partners Group said on Thursday.

It said expected gross new client demand was $26 billion to $32 billion for 2026, supported by "a large and visible pipeline of fundraising opportunities across mandates, evergreens and traditional closed-ended programmes."

The confirmation helped its shares recover somewhat after falling 16% to a six-year low on Wednesday.

The slump in the Partners Group shares fed through to peers in Europe on Wednesday, including Sweden's EQT, CVC Capital Partners and Bridgepoint Group. In the U.S., shares of asset managers Blackstone, KKR, TPG and Ares Management also fell.

Shares rose on Thursday, with Blackstone up 7%.

(Additional reporting by Dave Graham, John O'Donnell and Isla BinnieWriting by Vidya RanganathanEditing by Rod Nickel)