Antares BDC Ends First Full Year With NAV 1.7% Below Launch Price
Antares Private Credit Fund ended its first full year of operation with its per-share net asset value below its launch price, reporting a per-share NAV of $24.57 as of March 31, 2026, down from $25.07 at year-end 2025 and from $25 at launch in February 2025 — a decline of roughly 1.7% from the fund’s initial offering price over 13 months.
The quarter-over-quarter slide continued a trend that began in earnest in February, when per-share NAV dropped $0.40 in a single month from $25.07 to $24.67, before declining further to $24.57 in March.
At the same time, the Antares Capital-sponsored fund has grown. Aggregate NAV stood at $795.6 million as of March 31, up from $733.1 million at year-end and approximately $638 million in January 2026, reflecting continued inflows from new subscriptions. Loan commitments reached $2.06 billion, and the fund carried $968.1 million in principal debt outstanding — a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.22 times, up sharply from 0.33 times in January 2026 when the fund was still in early deployment.
That leverage ramp reflects the fund’s move from a lightly deployed launch vehicle to a fully invested private credit portfolio. Antares launched the nontraded business development company in February 2025 with more than $1.4 billion in investable capital and the institutional backing of CPP Investments, the Canada Pension Plan’s investment arm, which is the majority owner of Antares Holdings LP. The fund targets a diverse portfolio of sponsor-backed senior secured loans to primarily U.S. middle-market borrowers.
The NAV erosion over two consecutive months coincides with the period of most aggressive deployment. The fund invests primarily in below-investment-grade, floating-rate senior secured loans — a category that has faced valuation pressure as interest rates remained elevated and middle-market credit conditions tightened in early 2026.
Against that backdrop, shareholder demand for liquidity has been essentially nonexistent. The fund ran its most recent quarterly tender offer — capped at 5% of outstanding shares, in keeping with its standard repurchase program — from Feb. 13 to March 13, 2026. The fund reported just 1,983 of the 1,455,615 shares offered for repurchase were tendered, a participation rate of less than one-tenth of 1%. Total payment to tendering shareholders amounted to $47,737. The fund’s prior tender offer, which ran through June 2025, attracted zero tendered shares.
The contrast with other large nontraded BDCs is striking in the opposite direction. Peers including Blackstone Private Credit Fund, Oaktree Strategic Credit Fund, and HPS Corporate Lending Fund have faced significant redemption pressure over the past year, with several reporting proration and some posting NAV declines of their own. Antares, despite its NAV slide, has not attracted the same wave of redemption requests.
The fund filed a new quarterly tender offer May 14, offering to repurchase up to 5% of outstanding shares at a valuation date of June 30, 2026, at NAV.
As of March 31, the BDC had investments in 421 portfolio companies across 45 industries. Based on fair value, approximately 99.48% of its debt portfolio was invested in debt bearing the secured overnight financing rate, or SOFR. The company’s weighted average yield on debt and income producing investments at amortized cost was 8.33%.
On April 30, the fund declared a regular distribution of $0.1818 per share, payable to shareholders of record as of April 30 and to be paid on or about May 29. This distribution will be paid in cash or reinvested in additional common shares for those participating in the distribution reinvestment plan.
Antares Capital Credit Advisers LLC, an affiliate of Antares Capital LP, manages approximately $90 billion in capital under management and administration as of September 2025.
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