Hudson Bay pulls plans for dedicated private credit platform as BlackRock hires depart

Hudson Bay Capital Management has abandoned plans to establish a dedicated private credit business after two senior executives recruited from BlackRock left the $20bn alternative investment firm, according to a report b Bloomberg.

The report cites unnamed people familiar with the matter as revealing that Raj Vig and Tim Morris, who were among the senior investment professionals Hudson Bay brought in from BlackRock’s private credit operation, have departed the firm.

Hudson Bay had allocated approximately $1bn in seed capital to the team led by Vig, with the intention of deploying the money into private credit investments while raising external capital for a new standalone platform.

The firm has now shelved those plans, although Hudson Bay executives have told members of the remaining team that the firm intends to continue investing across credit, including opportunities within the roughly $1.8tn private credit market.

Vig joined Hudson Bay last year after serving as chairman and chief executive of BlackRock TCP Capital Corp, the publicly traded private credit vehicle that BlackRock acquired from Tennenbaum Capital Partners in 2018. Morris joined Hudson Bay after leaving BlackRock in 2024, where he had been Americas chief operating officer for the asset manager’s global credit business.

The departures come as BlackRock’s former TCP Capital operation faces increased scrutiny over the valuation of some of its loans. The fund has significantly reduced the value of a number of investments and has faced regulatory scrutiny over its valuation practices.

Morris disputed any suggestion that valuation issues had affected the funds he worked on while at BlackRock. He said that during his tenure there had been no regulatory inquiries or valuation-related issues and that the funds he helped manage had received eight consecutive years of clean audit opinions as well as a clean examination from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

At BlackRock TCP Capital, the publicly traded private credit vehicle has recently sold assets and said it was considering a range of strategic alternatives. Those options include returning capital to shareholders and potentially combining with another entity.

Hudson Bay reportedly declined to comment, while Vig reportedly did not provide a statement.