Blackstone BDC Declares Monthly NAV Per Share, Receives Third Investment Grade Rating
Blackstone Private Credit Fund, a non-traded business development company sponsored by private equity giant Blackstone (NYSE: BX), has declared its monthly net asset value per share for December 2021.
Blackstone Private Credit Fund, a non-traded business development company sponsored by private equity giant Blackstone (NYSE: BX), has declared its monthly net asset value per share for December 2021.
Class I, Class S, and Class D shares had an NAV per share of $25.93 as of December 31, 2021, compared to $25.91 the previous month. Shares were originally priced at $25.00 each.
The fund distributed a second special dividend for the year in December in the amount of $0.07 per share, in addition to its regular monthly dividend of $0.16 per share.
As of December 31, 2021, the fund’s aggregate NAV was $12.9 billion, the fair value of its investment portfolio was $30.8 billion, and it had $18.3 billion of debt outstanding (at principal). The average debt-to-equity leverage ratio during December 2021 was approximately 1.31 times.
This compares to the previous month when the fund’s aggregate NAV was $11.2 billion, the fair value of its investment portfolio was $25.1 billion, and it had $15.8 billion debt outstanding (at principal). The average debt-to-equity leverage ratio during November 2021 was 1.27 times.
In December 2021, the BDC received its third investment grade rating at the company level from S&P Global Ratings (BBB-), following two prior investment grade ratings from Moody’s (Baa3) and DBRS Morningstar (BBB).
“As the only non-traded BDC with [investment grade] ratings, this enables the fund to optimize and diversify its leverage portfolio with 25 percent of liabilities issued as fixed rate bonds, locking in lower rates that can benefit returns in a rising interest rate environment,” the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Blackstone Private Credit Fund is the industry’s first perpetual-life BDC and broke escrow on January 7, 2021. The fund is part of Blackstone Credit’s direct lending platform, which provides privately originated, senior secured, floating rate loans to U.S. and European middle market companies. Since inception, the BDC has raised $14.1 billion in its private and public offerings, as of January 26, 2022.
As of December 31, 2021, the BDC had $23.1 billion in committed debt capacity, with 75 percent in secured floating rate leverage and 25 percent in unsecured fixed rate leverage based on drawn amounts. The fund’s leverage sources are in the form of a corporate revolver (6 percent), asset-based credit facilities (55 percent), unsecured bonds (25 percent), secured short term indebtedness (4 percent) and collateralized loan obligation notes (10 percent) based on drawn amounts.
