"Healthcare has been another very active sector for us, and we have done, I think, about $11 billion actually of loans and investments in healthcare," Lipschultz said.
Cowen gives Blue Owl exposure to the pharmaceutical industry; Blue Owl's healthcare business had been focused on healthcare services structured solutions assets, including royalties, he said.
Healthcare is a big area of growth for Blue Owl along with alternative credit, which includes asset-backed loans such as airplane leasing, he said.
Blue Owl executives are also focused on managing capital for insurance companies, Lipschultz said.
"The (channel of capital) we don't have that obviously some of our peers have done so well with is insurance," Lipschultz said. "We may or may not be able to develop the … right solution. … We do not aspire to own an insurance company. We don't aspire to become an insurance company."
He also said Blue Owl executives are interested in developing a real estate credit business that "would be literally filling in something we have enormous strength in."
Lipschultz added: "We're quite enthused about real estate and the opportunity, especially given the disruption."
Blue Owl reported $26.9 billion in real estate AUM as of Dec. 31, up 4% from Sept. 30 and up 27% from $21.1 billion Dec. 31, 2022.
Lipschultz also noted a first close of $2 billion for the firm's sixth general partner minority stakes fund, following the final close of its fifth fund. Blue Owl closed Dyal Capital Partners V with about $12.9 billion on Dec. 30, 2022. Blue Owl expects to close Dyal Capital Partners VI in 2024 or 2025. Blue Owl announced this month a joint venture with Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based global alternative investment manager that will focus on taking minority stakes in midsize private capital firms. Blue Owl's Dyal series of funds focuses on larger private markets firms, Lipschultz explained.
Blue Owl reported that its GP stakes business, called GP Strategic Capital, had $54.2 billion in AUM as of Dec. 31, up 5% from three months earlier and up 12% from a year earlier.
Blue Owl's largest business is private credit with $84.6 billion at the end of the fourth quarter, up 6% from Sept. 30 and up 23% from Dec. 31, 2022.
When asked about the impact of competition in the direct lending industry on volume and pricing, Lipschultz said, "You've just said a lot of people are talking about it. … I'm not chuckling, but it's a little bit funny how much attention, all of a sudden everyone wants to talk about private credit, whether that is, in fact, a large part of their strategies or not, but we're happy about it."
Blue Owl's credit portfolio is sound, with 15% EBITDA growth of its borrowers, on average, across its business.
"We obviously focus on some very, very attractive industries, attractive businesses with the biggest (private equity) backers," he said.
Blue Owl executives expect more transactions in 2024 than the prior year, which was "a very tepid activity year," Lipschultz said. "If you asked me the one thing I would have liked to have in direct lending, it would be just more aggregate market activity."
He noted that Blue Owl lends to the largest companies and "that remains the domain of a handful of people, many of whom have raised a lot of money."
"If you look at the dollar flows (into private credit), a lot of the dollars are in the hands of the same handful of people that had them before," Lipschultz said. "So, the top of the pyramid isn't really changing meaningfully. The bottom of the pyramid, there's definitely a lot of new people jockeying down there. It's not where we operate."
