* Blue Owl's profit matches Wall Street estimates

* Executives highlight diversified business beyond private

credit

* Investor focus expected on direct lending business

* Shares rise in volatile premarket trading

(Adds estimates in headline and paragraph 1-2, adds equity

fundraising and details of credit AUM in paragraph 6, updates

shares in paragraph 7)

By Isla Binnie and Manya Saini

NEW YORK, July 30 (Reuters) - Alternative asset manager Blue

Owl posted quarterly profit in line with estimates and

growth in its data center-focused business, but a pullback by

the wealthy individuals who powered its rapid growth weighed on

its credit unit.

The company has sought to move past the private credit

turmoil that rattled the sector earlier this year by

highlighting the breadth of its business beyond direct lending -

spanning investments in data centers and related infrastructure,

real estate and stakes in other asset managers - as evidence

that its earnings are less reliant on any single asset class.

Total equity fundraising fell to $7.6 billion in the second

quarter from $12.1 billion a year earlier, while assets under

management in its credit business edged down to $158.1 billion

from $159.2 billion at the end of the previous quarter, it said

on Thursday.

"Blue Owl's ongoing growth in the second quarter reflects

the strong investment performance we continue to generate across

strategies and the diversification of our business across

platforms and geographies," Co-CEOs Doug Ostrover and Marc

Lipschultz said in a statement.

New capital commitments of $7.8 billion in the quarter were

close to half the $13.9 billion it raised in the same period a

year earlier. New money from private wealth, an investor group

that has been a key driver of Blue Owl's growth, was $1.7

billion versus $4.4 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Adjusted distributable earnings per share came in at 22

cents for the three months ended June 30, compared with 21 cents

a year earlier. It was in line with estimates compiled by LSEG.

The stock was volatile after the results, swinging between

gains and losses. It was last up 1.7% before the bell.

Blue Owl's AUM increased 12% in the second quarter over the

same period in the prior year. A rebound in financial markets

has lifted AUM across the industry, as investors continued to

embrace risk despite heightened market volatility.

DIRECT LENDING IN FOCUS

The private credit sell-off sparked by fears that AI would

fundamentally reshape software and technology business models

has subsided in recent months, but retail investors have

continued to request redemptions from funds that gave them

access to rarely-traded loans.

Within Blue Owl's credit platform, direct lending

originations were $3.6 billion in the second quarter. Deployment

was $600 million.

Gross returns from direct lending strategies were 2.6% in

the quarter, rebounding from negative 0.4% in the first quarter

and shy of 3% in the same quarter of 2025.

A key part of the private credit market, direct lending

involves asset managers making loans directly to companies

outside traditional banks to finance buyouts, growth and

refinancing. The business has faced heightened investor scrutiny

this year.

Still, several industry executives have dismissed fears of

broader contagion, arguing that credit stress is limited to

isolated cases and that market sentiment has been driven more by

negative headlines than deteriorating fundamentals.

The firm's own shares became a proxy for market jitters

around private credit and have lost around 36% of their value

this year.

Earlier this month, the company maintained a 5% quarterly

withdrawal limit for two of ​its private credit funds as

redemption requests remained substantially above the cap despite

falling by a few percentage points in the second ‌quarter.

For alternative asset managers, fundraising is a critical

measure of business momentum, signaling both investor confidence

and the industry's ability to generate future management fees

and investment income.