Nuveen Churchill Waives Half of Incentive Fee as PCAP Posts 6.83% One-Year Return
Churchill PCIF Advisor LLC waived 50% of its April income-based incentive fee payable by Nuveen Churchill Private Capital Income Fund, or PCAP, for the fourth consecutive month, as the nontraded business development company reported crossing $1.5 billion in aggregate net asset value.
The fund only disclosed the waiver agreement at the end of May 2026. It covers 50% of the income-based incentive fee for April, the same structure the adviser has applied every month since January. The terms of the underlying advisory agreement remain unchanged.
The fund reported $1.5 billion in total NAV as of April 30, with a $2.5 billion investment portfolio. Class I shares posted a one-year return of 6.83% through April 30, with a weighted average yield on debt investments of 8.74%. The fund declared a May distribution of $0.170 per Class I share, payable to shareholders of record as of May 31.
NAV per share held at $24.00 for Class I. As of April 30, PCAP held debt and equity investments in 342 portfolio companies with an average position size of 0.29% of the portfolio.
The ongoing fee waivers follow PCAP’s acquisition of Nuveen Churchill BDC V, which closed May 1 in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $347 million – equal to BDC V’s NAV as of April 29. PCAP funded the purchase primarily through $337.3 million in borrowings under its Bank of America and Bank of Nova Scotia credit facilities, and simultaneously assumed $511 million in BDC V’s outstanding debt. BDC V’s shareholders approved the deal the day before closing.
That transaction was itself a sequel. PCAP acquired Nuveen Churchill Private Credit Fund in December 2024 for approximately $221 million, absorbing $281.5 million in additional liabilities. The two acquisitions expanded PCAP’s portfolio to 342 companies spanning $2.5 billion in investments, with business services (18%), healthcare and pharmaceuticals (14%), high-tech industries (10%), and capital equipment (8%) as the largest sector concentrations.
Ken Kencel, president and chief executive officer of PCAP, said at the time of the BDC V announcement that the transaction was designed to deliver “meaningful long-term value” to PCAP shareholders while facilitating an “efficient wind-down” of BDC V. Post-transaction, PCAP’s top 10 investments were projected to represent a smaller percentage of the portfolio, reducing concentration risk.
A Pattern Across the Sector
The fee waivers are not unique to PCAP. Ratings agency KBRA noted in a late-2025 BDC compendium that perpetual-life BDCs had broadly continued to rely on fee waivers as competitive pressures, tightening spreads, and rate uncertainty weighed on net investment income. The pattern reflects a structural feature of the nontraded BDC model: advisers use temporary fee relief to protect distribution coverage ratios and support NAV stability during periods of portfolio transition or market stress, without triggering the disclosure requirements or investor anxiety that a distribution cut would produce.
As previously reported by AltsWire, the broader nontraded BDC fundraising environment has softened considerably. According to Robert A. Stanger & Company, nontraded BDC sales were tracking roughly 59% below their Q1 2025 peak through the first quarter of 2026, with Stanger projecting an approximately 40% year-over-year decline in BDC capital formation for the full year. The slowdown, which Stanger has compared to the nontraded REIT contraction of 2022-2023, has made fee discipline and NAV stability increasingly important competitive signals for sponsors seeking to retain adviser relationships in a tighter fundraising environment.
Nuveen Churchill Private Capital Income Fund is externally managed by Churchill PCIF Advisor LLC, an affiliate of Churchill Asset Management LLC, which operates as the exclusive U.S. middle market direct lending and private capital business of Nuveen – the investment management division of TIAA.
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