Antares Strategic Credit Fund: June 2026 Tender Requests of 10.3% Were Prorated to 72.6%

Which Antares fund this is

Antares has three look-alike vehicles in the SEC database, and the names invite mix-ups. This page is about Antares Strategic Credit Fund, which the fund's own materials abbreviate A-STAR. Its 10-K says: “We are a private, perpetual-life BDC.” Shares are sold in transactions exempt from registration, “restricted securities” that cannot be transferred without the fund's consent, and only to accredited investors. It is not the public non-traded fund we cover in Antares Private Credit Fund, and not the much smaller Antares Strategic Credit Fund II LLC (CIK 2065397, which filed its BDC election in July 2025, $87.8 million of net assets and a $24.82 NAV at August 31, 2026, with a shareholder servicing fee deducted from its distributions).

The fund began with an affiliate's contribution of about $300.0 million of assets for 12.0 million shares at its initial closing, then raised money from outside investors: $542.7 million on April 1, 2024, $473.9 million on July 1 and $197.5 million on October 1, 2024 (Form 8-Ks). It holds 415 portfolio companies across 45 industries, 95.84% of its investments in secured debt, with 99.56% of the debt at floating rates, a median borrower EBITDA of $94.6 million and a weighted average loan-to-value of 37% (10-Q, June 30, 2026). Software is the largest industry at 18.73% of investments, up from 15.82% six months earlier.

Three offers, one proration

The program lets the fund buy back up to 7.5% of the shares outstanding at the close of the previous half year, twice a year, with the board free to “amend, suspend or terminate” it. The risk factors state that the board has “the Discretion to Not Repurchase Common Shares.” The price is NAV at the last day of the half year.

Three details decide what this means for a holder.

The shortfall does not carry over. The acceptance letter the fund sent says unfulfilled requests “do not carry over automatically” and may be resubmitted in a later offer. A holder who tendered 100,000 shares in June had about 72,590 bought, about $1.81 million at $24.92, and has about 27,410 shares left that must be tendered again in an offer that, by the fund's letter, is “expected in the fourth quarter of 2026” (our arithmetic on 72.59%). The unfilled portion also stops taking part in dividend reinvestment unless the holder asks for it to be put back.

The terms differ from the usual quarterly fund. Shareholders agree in the subscription agreement not to tender in a tender offer valued within 12 months of the purchase date, and shares not outstanding for six months beyond that period are repurchased at a 5% discount to NAV. For comparison, the public Antares Private Credit Fund repurchases quarterly and applies a 2% deduction to shares held under one year.

Payment is by promissory note. The offer documents say accepted shares are paid with a “non-interest bearing, non-transferable” promissory note held by the transfer agent. The December 2025 notes were paid about five weeks after the December 31 valuation date, and the June 2026 payment about five weeks after the June 30 date (our arithmetic: 35 days in August). The price is therefore unknown when you tender and the cash arrives after it is fixed.

The June result is not, by itself, a sign of trouble: the fund paid for what it had promised to buy. It filed a preliminary count on June 25, two weeks after the offer closed, and the request was 137.8% of the limit (our arithmetic). For how other large funds have handled the same pressure, see the private credit redemptions tracker.

Money in, money out

A semi-annual exit is fed by new subscriptions and reinvested distributions. The monthly Form 8-Ks give the first, the quarterly 10-Q the second.

In the second quarter of 2026 the fund issued shares for cash worth $16.8 million, against $211.3 million in the second quarter of 2025 (down 92%, our arithmetic). Reinvested distributions added $29.8 million and the repurchase took out $148.3 million, so share transactions subtracted $101.7 million from net assets in the quarter. Over the six months, cash issuance of $172.6 million plus reinvestment of $61.0 million less the repurchase left a net increase of $85.2 million; the January subscription of $102.3 million is 59% of the six-month cash raised (our arithmetic on the monthly 8-Ks). About 26% of the capital added in the first half was reinvested distributions, not new cash (our arithmetic: $61.0 million of $233.5 million).

The June letter says the fund “recorded net capital inflows of approximately $78.0 million.” Its footnote gives the basis: an estimate that assumes a full 7.5% redemption priced at the April 30 NAV and counts subscriptions from January 1 to June 1 and reinvestments from January 1 to May 1. That is a different measure from the 10-Q's quarter, in which new money did not cover the repurchase. Both are correct on their own terms; the 10-Q's second-quarter line is the one that matches the tender.

What the June letter says, and what the filings say

The shareholder letter the fund filed with its June 25 amendment is the only place the fund describes its own view of the offer. Putting its statements next to the later filings:

Nothing in the letter is contradicted by a later filing; most of its figures are older than the June 30 numbers. What the comparison shows is the direction: leverage a little higher, ratings a little weaker, income at the edge of the payout, and credit losses not yet visible. The letter also states the next fact a holder cares about, which the filings repeat: the 10-K's risk factors give the board discretion to suspend the program, and the letter says the fund “will not” carry the unfilled 2.2 million shares forward.

Leverage: four lenders, $3.5 billion of capacity

Debt rose $296.6 million between December 31, 2025 and August 31, 2026 (our arithmetic) while aggregate NAV went from $2,017.6 million to $2,097.7 million. The new PNC facility was drawn by $679.0 million by June 30, 11 weeks after its signing, while the SG and revolving facilities were paid down by about $382 million (our arithmetic from the 10-Q table). The weighted average interest rate on all debt was 5.53% in the second quarter against 6.18% a year earlier; the portfolio's weighted average yield at amortized cost was 8.37% at June 30. Interest and debt expense was $69.2 million in the first half of 2026, 35.0% of total investment income of $197.6 million (our arithmetic).

NAV and the payout

NAV per share held between $25.42 and $25.45 at every quarter-end of 2025, then dropped in one step from $25.36 on January 31 to $24.99 on February 28, 2026 (down 1.5%, our arithmetic) and touched $24.88 in March. The 10-Q puts the first-half net change in unrealized value at negative $40.9 million. August 31 is 1.96% below the December 2024 NAV of $25.53 (our arithmetic). The fall in aggregate NAV from $2,201.1 million at May 31 to $2,059.4 million at June 30, $141.7 million (our arithmetic from the 8-Ks), is the repurchase.

The fund paid quarterly in 2025, $0.5932 to $0.6022 a share including a special amount, and switched to monthly in 2026: $0.1997 (January, with a $0.0054 special), $0.1800, $0.1962, then regular-only payments of $0.1840, $0.1910, $0.1847, $0.1905, $0.1906 and $0.1852 (September, payable October 28). The six-month total is $1.1356 a share (our sum of the monthly declarations), the 10-Q's $1.14. All of the first half's $98.3 million came from net investment income, none from return of capital. Total return based on NAV was 9.17% in 2025 and 2.58% in the first six months of 2026, not annualized, because $0.49 a share of realized and unrealized losses cut the half year's $1.13 of net investment income to $0.64 of earnings per share (10-Q).

Fees: the waiver is gone

The Adviser waived all management and income incentive fees through September 30, 2024 and half of them in the fourth quarter of 2024: $5.1 million and $9.4 million waived that year, $14.5 million together (our sum). In 2025 it waived none and reversed $165 thousand of a prior waiver. From then on investors pay the full schedule.

• Base management fee: 1.25% a year of average NAV, payable quarterly. In the first half of 2026 it cost $13.1 million.
• Income incentive fee: nothing below a 1.25% quarterly return (5.0% annualized), then 100% of income up to 1.43% a quarter (5.72% annualized), then 12.5%. The hurdle is lower than the 6.0% at Antares Private Credit Fund, so the adviser starts earning sooner. It cost $14.0 million in the first half.
• Capital gains fee: 12.5% of cumulative realized gains, net of realized losses and unrealized depreciation.
• Expense support: the Adviser caps operating expenses at 1.00% of NAV with the right to be reimbursed for up to three years; none was provided in 2024 or 2025.
• Early repurchase deduction: 5%, described above.
• Placement agent: the placement agent, Quasar Distributors, is paid 0.0035% to 0.0050% of total assets a year, minimum $25,000, according to the October 2025 8-K.

Management and incentive fees together took $27.1 million in the first half of 2026, 13.7% of total investment income, and interest took another 35.0% (our arithmetic). Total expenses were 9.47% of average net assets annualized, against 8.25% in 2025 (10-Q and 10-K).

Credit quality

Non-accruals are small and moving in both directions. What changed in 2026 is the B category, loans that perform but “require increased monitoring”: $143.4 million at June 30, up from $85.0 million at December 31 (our arithmetic: 1.7 times). The rise came in the same half year as the February and March mark-down. The fund's ratings are its own, assigned by the Adviser, and are not a credit agency's.

A-STAR next to Antares Private Credit Fund

Same adviser, same management fee, different product. The table below is the only overlap with our Antares Private Credit Fund page, which has the history of that fund.

What a holder can do with this

• If you hold A-STAR: the next offer is a decision by the fund's board, so the first fact to find out is whether and when it is announced. The last two offers were filed on May 14, 2026 and November 24, 2025, so a November filing is plausible but not promised. Decide before then whether the unfilled part of your June request should be tendered again.
• Size the queue: a full 7.5% offer on the 82,648,467 shares outstanding at June 30 is 6,198,635 shares, about $155 million at $25.03. If requests are again 10.33% of shares, they would be about 8.5 million shares, about $214 million (our arithmetic; the reference date for the next offer will be June 30, 2026). The fund reports $866.8 million available under its borrowing bases at June 30; the limit is the 7.5% rule, not cash on hand.
• Watch the monthly 8-K for the three numbers that moved: cash subscriptions (about $6 million to $9 million a month), debt-to-NAV (1.17 times) and NAV per share ($25.03).
• Ask your advisor the payout question: net investment income paid for 99% of distributions in the first half of 2026, with fees fully charged and interest taking 35% of income. If either moves against you, the distribution is the thing that changes.
• If you are weighing the fund: the shares are restricted, the minimum investment is not stated in the SEC filings we read, there is no secondary market, and the exit is twice a year and prorated when requests exceed 7.5%. The public Antares fund and the others in our non-traded BDC list offer more frequent windows at different prices.

This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.

FAQ

All figures are from the SEC filings of Antares Strategic Credit Fund (CIK 1993402) read on EDGAR on October 8, 2026: three Schedule TO-I offers (May 2025, November 2025, May 2026) and their TO-I/A results, including the Amendment No. 1 and shareholder letter of June 25, 2026 (accession 0001104659-26-077774) and the final amendment of August 6, 2026 (0001104659-26-092070); the Form 8-K reports from April 2024 to September 30, 2026 (latest accession 0001193125-26-409124); the Form 10-K for 2024 (0000950170-25-040578) and 2025 (0001193125-26-115988); the Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, June 30 and September 30, 2025 and March 31 and June 30, 2026 (latest 0001193125-26-349216); and, for the other Antares funds, the Form 8-K of September 30, 2026 for Antares Private Credit Fund (0001193125-26-409111) and for Antares Strategic Credit Fund II LLC (0001193125-26-409112). Coverage ratios, shares of the limit, sums across months and offers, amounts not bought and annualised rates are our arithmetic. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.