Wholesale investors locked out as lender confirms redemption pause, deepening scrutiny of Australia's $200b private credit sector
Metrics Credit Partners has frozen withdrawals from two unlisted wholesale funds holding more than $9 billion.
The move comes days after ASX-listed trusts run by the Sydney-based private credit lender were suspended from trade amid a valuation dispute with its auditor.
The AFR first reported late on Tuesday evening that Metrics has stopped processing redemption requests from its $6 billion MCP Wholesale Investment Trust. It has also halted redemptions from its $3.3 billion wholesale real estate debt fund (REDF), which is mainly exposed to property loans.
The freeze is directly to the audit process that has already forced write-downs across the lender's listed vehicles.
Metrics gave no date for lifting the suspension.
According to the AFR, the trustee's letter said the pause would allow liquidity to be provided in an orderly way, balancing the interests of all investors.
Private-market assets have no readily observable market prices, so valuing them involves significant judgement.
How the audit dispute unfolded
The redemption freeze follows a turbulent week for Metrics and private credit in general.
On Monday, Metrics put the Metrics Master Income Trust, Metrics Income Opportunities Trust and Metrics Real Estate Multi-Strategy Fund into a trading halt, after auditor KPMG made "different decisions" on the underlying value of the funds.
Net tangible asset values were then cut by over 12% in the Real Estate Multi-Strategy Fund, with the combined reduction across the three listed funds at around 5%, or $168 million.
The write-downs, however, do not represent realised losses.
UBS analysts Shreyas Patel and Kieren Chidgey told clients that the delay can no longer be viewed as largely administrative. They said valuation assumptions had been reviewed, including expected credit loss provisions. The analysts expect some impact on net flows, as well as possible fallout from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's (ASIC) review of the sector.
A sector under strain
Metrics, which manages about $40 billion, is one of several managers to gate funds in recent weeks. Gating means restricting investors' ability to withdraw their money.
MA Financial limited redemptions from its $2.3 billion secured property loan fund to 1% a month. Earlier, lenders exposed to Western Sydney developer Bathla Group, including CVS Lane and Centuria Bass, froze redemptions after Bathla collapsed owing roughly $3.4 billion to more than 40 lenders. Metrics has no exposure to Bathla.
ASIC has been stepping up its activity in the booming private credit sector after a review of 28 private credit funds that put the sector on notice in late 2025.
That followed the regulator's earlier warning that the private credit sector must lift standards. ASIC's own commissioned research, Report 814 on Australia's private credit market.
What it means for brokers
A freeze on investor withdrawals does not automatically halt new lending. Still, it adds pressure on the funding that sits behind loans already in the pipeline.
Industry-led reform is still some way off. The Financial Services Council's Private Markets Best Practice Principles do not bind full members until 1 July 2027. Until then, due diligence on private lenders rests largely with brokers themselves.
