Private Credit Funds Have a NAV. Secondary Buyers Have a Price.

July 15, 2026

A private credit fund can report one value for an investor’s shares. A buyer offering immediate cash may arrive at a very different number.

Reuters recently covered tender offers from Cox Capital for shares in private credit funds managed by Apollo, Ares and HPS. The proposed prices range from 15% to 30% below each fund’s reported net asset value.

For investors waiting in long redemption queues, those offers create a blunt choice. They can remain in line and hope to receive the full stated value over time, or they can accept less today and get their money back sooner.

The offers put a real price on liquidity.

Why the redemption queues keep growing

Non-traded business development companies have become a popular way for wealthy individuals to invest in private credit. These vehicles hold loans to private companies and often pay attractive distributions.

They also offer periodic withdrawals, which can make them feel more flexible than traditional private funds.

The flexibility has limits.

Many non-traded BDCs allow quarterly withdrawals equal to only 5% of net asset value. When investors request more than that, the available cash is divided among them and the remaining requests move into the next redemption period.

Fitch reported that average withdrawal requests reached 10.3% of outstanding shares during the second quarter across the funds it tracks. Demand for cash is now running at more than twice the standard quarterly limit.

Investors can wait several quarters for a complete redemption. A longer wave of requests could stretch the process further.

What Cox Capital is offering

Cox Capital is offering Apollo Debt Solutions investors about 70 cents for every dollar of reported NAV. HPS Corporate Lending Fund investors are being offered roughly 75 cents. The proposed price for Ares Strategic Income Fund shares is closer to 85 cents.

Those discounts may look severe, especially when the funds continue to report stable net asset values and pay distributions.

The buyer is offering something the fund cannot currently guarantee: immediate liquidity.

That speed has a price. Cox Capital is betting that some investors would rather take a known discount now than remain in a redemption queue with an uncertain timeline.

The fund managers may see the same offers very differently. Widespread acceptance could suggest that investors do not fully trust the stated NAV or the withdrawal process. It could also create an outside reference point that competes with the values reported by the funds themselves.

NAV meets an actual bid

Private assets are usually valued through models, manager estimates and comparable transactions. Those methods can be reasonable, but they do not always show what a buyer will pay today.

A tender offer changes the conversation.

The stated NAV might be one dollar. A buyer may offer 70 cents. An investor then has to decide whether the difference reflects an unfair bargain or the real cost of getting cash immediately.

Publicly traded BDCs add another layer. Reuters noted that listed private credit vehicles trade at an average of roughly 75 cents on the dollar. Some hold portfolios that increasingly resemble their non-traded counterparts.

An investor could accept a discounted tender for a non-traded fund and move the proceeds into a similar public vehicle trading at an equal or larger discount. That possibility gives the tender strategy more credibility, even when the offer looks aggressive.

It also raises a difficult question for private fund managers. If comparable assets trade below NAV in public markets, how long can private valuations remain untouched?

Liquidity is becoming its own market

The private credit industry spent years building products that brought individual investors into assets once reserved for large institutions. The entry process became easier. The exit process still depends on quarterly limits and manager-controlled liquidity.

Third-party tender offers are beginning to build a separate market around that problem.

Investors who need cash can sell. Buyers willing to wait can purchase at a discount. The fund remains in place while ownership changes outside the normal redemption process.

The transaction may not happen at the value printed on the investor statement, but it produces something private markets often lack: a price backed by a willing buyer.

The LPshares view

LPshares was built around the same basic reality across private markets. An investment may still be performing while the investor holding it needs a different timeline.

A functioning secondary market gives that investor another route. It also gives buyers access to existing private positions that may offer a more attractive entry price than a new investment.

The Cox Capital offers show both sides of that market in plain numbers. Sellers are being asked to trade value for speed. Buyers are being paid for taking on time and uncertainty.

Neither side is automatically wrong. The important part is having a real choice and enough information to evaluate it.

Private credit funds can continue publishing NAVs. Secondary buyers will continue deciding what those shares are worth in cash today. As redemption queues grow, the distance between those two numbers will become harder to ignore.