Blue Owl, an alternative asset manager, has closed its Owl Rock Opportunistic Fund with aggregate capital commitments to the strategy of $2.0 billion.
The strategy will have $2.5 billion in investable capital, including anticipated leverage, to provide private capital and customized solutions that are unique to each company. The strategy attracted backing from a group of global investors, including pension funds, endowments, foundations, family offices and asset managers.
The fund will focus on leading directly originated investment opportunities across a broad range of debt and equity instruments, which may include situations such as rescue financings, recapitalizations, wedge capital, DIP loans and broken syndications.
Douglas Ostrover, chief executive officer of Blue Owl, said, “This strategy allows us to offer our investors opportunities for higher potential returns while also providing bespoke financing solutions to support leading middle market companies and financial sponsors in navigating complex situations. We are grateful to our investors for their continued support and thrilled with the strong interest and response from around the world in our inaugural opportunistic offering.”
Nicole Drapkin, portfolio manager and co-head of opportunistic credit, said, “This strategy is a natural evolution of our range of credit-oriented investment offerings and enables us to pursue a more comprehensive opportunity set on behalf of our investors. In today’s fast-moving markets, sponsors and management teams appear to be increasingly prioritizing access to private, nimble capital solutions as a competitive advantage, resulting in our team being able to deploy capital into a range of structured solutions that can offer the potential for compelling returns and downside protection.”
Jesse Huff, portfolio manager and co-head of opportunistic credit, added, “By combining Blue Owl’s deep credit underwriting capabilities and strong relationships across the private markets ecosystem, we have been able to identify and pursue a broad range of opportunities to invest in attractive businesses with unique liquidity needs. This includes many market leaders seeking to strengthen and reinforce their balance sheets during a period of uncertainty.”