By Fabio Galloni-Roversi Monaco
PR & Marketing Director
Over the past six months or so, the private credit industry has taken a battering across pretty much all forms of media.
As “SaaSpocalypse”, “redemptions wave”, “portfolio devaluations” and even “global financial crisis” impose themselves as the new buzzwords to describe the asset class in the global press, as a private credit asset manager or advisor you may be feeling a slight sense of unease in submitting your fund or product to the scrutiny of investors and clients.
That’s why, for this edition of PR Corner, I’d like to share some tips on how to safeguard and build your organisation’s reputation as it weathers the media storm that is shaking up the perception of a whole industry.
1: Engage with the media
Ok, this tip may seem both counterintuitive and obvious. On the one hand, why would I throw myself, my organisation and my stakeholders under the scrutiny of a journalist who is likely to have a biased, if not outright negative, view of my work? On the other hand, how else do I cross the T’s and dot the I’s to make sure that the (valid) concerns regarding the asset class do not affect my organisation?
The fact of the matter is, if you do not engage with the media, you will not get to share your interpretation of the facts. And it’s worth getting your message out there as soon as possible if you want it to be heard, especially when the situation starts to become more complicated.
When, at the beginning of June, several GPs announced they had restricted redemptions on some of their flagship private credit and equity semiliquid funds, Ares CEO Michael Arougheti gave an interview with Bloomberg TV explaining how redemptions from semi liquid funds said more about the concerns of individual (retail, high and ultra-high net worth) investors than they did about the asset class as a whole. In the interview, he also underlined how performance continues to meet investor expectations – nimbly pointing out his firm’s year on year growth.
2: Speak to the trade press
“Ok, this is great and all makes sense” you’ll be thinking “but Ares’ CEO can get a TV interview by picking up his phone and making a call, I cannot”. Point taken. Nevertheless, as Rome wasn’t built in a day – neither will your media presence. While featuring in tier one publications such as Bloomberg, the Financial Times or The Wall Street Journal may seem like the highest return on your PR & comms investment, there is a galaxy of publications focusing on private markets and private credit that you can reach out to – Creditflux, Debtwire, 9fin, With Intelligence, Private Debt Investor, Pitchbook, Structured Credit Investor and Octus, to name a few.
These industry outlets offer the highest quality of reporting – often supported by proprietary data on the asset classes they cover – and, given their sector focus, are always on the lookout for new, interesting opinions to include in their articles. Engage with the trade press, and strive to build long-term relationships with its journalists.
3: Be transparent about the industry’s shortcomings
Now that we have discussed our key engagement targets, it’s time to focus on how to make your narrative stand out from the crowd. Given the current sentiment towards the asset class this is no mean feat, especially as the aforementioned sentiment stems from real issues. After all, haven’t liquidity concerns also been driven by increased default rates? Haven’t prominent bankruptcies over the past six months raised fears of systemic issues amongst investors? And ultimately, shouldn’t retail and wealth investors be concerned about putting the money they may need for a rainy day into intrinsically illiquid assets? These are all valid questions which merit a public answer.
While private credit is more resilient than some headlines would suggest, it’s important to not only proclaim the upsides of the industry, but to also address its problems with transparency and clarity. Earlier this year, during an interview on CNBC, our client Raymond James’ Global Head of Private Capital Advisory, Sunaina Sinha Haldea, did just that. Sunaina delved headfirst into the issue of liquidity mismatches, in her opinion the main driving factor for the current pressures on the industry. After discussing the problems, however, she swiftly moved on to the upsides of the asset class, hinting at the solidity of most of the underlying loans and highlighting its resilient fundamentals.
4: Don’t forget your own(ed) channels
For the past decade, the notion that every company is a media company has been reiterated again and again. But the idea, albeit timeworn, still carries its weight and offers a practical solution to our private credit narrative issue. Company websites, social media, newsletters and – for those with deeper pockets and camera-ready executives – proprietary video podcasts can become a GP’s best friend in countering a storytelling that literally comprises “apocalypse” among its words of choice.
An illustrative example of the efficacy of owned channels comes from Blackstone. In a 9 slide LinkedIn carousel, the alternative assets giant sets out to debunk some of the current myths on the landscape, conveying in a succinct, clear and direct way that – even as private credit’s performance has normalised from its peaks – the asset class remains a compelling investment opportunity.
True, you do miss out on that authoritative, third-party validation that only the free press can provide. Nevertheless, your owned channels represent an important – and comparatively low-effort – tool to engage with your public and deliver your message to stakeholders at a time of crisis.
Final recommendations
To wrap this up, if your organisation is concerned about the impact of the negative press that private credit has received throughout most of 2026, our recommendation is to not retreat from the public eye but to put your message out there. There is no need to allocate multi-million pound comms and marketing budgets to implement these four tips, and their consistent application will benefit your firm over the long term by positioning it as a transparent, competent player in the market. Who knows, perhaps even as an industry thought leader.
