July 31 (Reuters) - Ares Capital ( ARCC ) and Blue Owl

Capital reported resilient second-quarter results this

week, while Ares Management ( ARES ) posted record fundraising,

highlighting continued institutional demand for private credit

despite rising defaults, retail redemptions and liquidity

concerns.

Ares Management ( ARES ), one of the industry's largest players,

raised a record $36 billion in the second quarter, including

$23.7 billion for its credit strategies. Assets under management

rose 17% from a year earlier to $671.3 billion.

"Clients continue to reward us due to our strong and

consistent fund performance across our strategies," Ares

Management ( ARES ) Chief Executive Michael Arougheti said.

Ares Management ( ARES ) deployed $35.9 billion during the quarter

and ended June with a record $170 billion of uninvested capital.

The firm said its investment pipeline was improving after a

subdued period for dealmaking, as geopolitical uncertainty

weighed on sponsor-backed transactions.

Separately, Ares Capital ( ARCC ), the largest publicly traded

business development company (BDC), reported core earnings of 47

cents per share, in line with the LSEG consensus estimate. It

maintained its quarterly dividend and had about $6 billion of

available liquidity as of July 23.

Blue Owl Capital reported $319 billion of assets under

management at the end of June, up 12% from a year earlier. Its

distributable earnings rose 9%, matching analysts' average

estimate.

But signs of stress remain across parts of the market.

Fitch Ratings said the U.S. private-credit default rate rose

to a record 6.0% in the 12 months through June, from 5.7% in the

previous quarter. The agency recorded 32 default events in the

second quarter involving 20 new borrowers.

Industrials and manufacturing had the highest default rate

among major sectors, at 10.4%, while healthcare stood at 9.4%,

Fitch said.

At the same time, retail-focused private-credit funds

continued to receive redemption requests well above their normal

quarterly repurchase limits.

Jefferies said private-credit inflows were down about 25%

year-to-date from the same period in 2025. Second-quarter

redemption requests reached 38.1% of net asset value at Blue Owl

Technology Income Corp, 18.9% at Blue Owl Credit Income Corp and

16.8% at Apollo Debt Solutions.

Most funds repurchased shares equivalent to about 5% of net

asset value during the quarter, leaving some investors with

withdrawal requests rolled into future periods.

Evercore estimated global private credit secondary-market

volume reached $20.4 billion in the first half of 2026, up 122%

from a year earlier and exceeding the total recorded in all of

2025. GP-led deals, in which managers offer investors the option

of selling or rolling holdings into a new vehicle, accounted for

83% of the total.

Evercore expects BDCs, semi-liquid funds and interval funds

to account for about a quarter of credit-secondary activity this

year as managers seek to meet investor liquidity needs.