Software or real estate? How BDCs label the same borrower
MRI Software is software at Ares and real estate at Morgan Stanley's BDCs. 20.5% of shared software borrowers get a different sector label at another holder.
Contents 5 sections
In the June 30, 2026 schedules, 20.5% of the software borrowers that BDCs share carry a different sector label at another holder. That's about one in five. We took every borrower that two or more BDCs hold, where at least one of them labels it software, and compared the labels across holders.
MRI Software is one of them. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund and North Haven Private Income Fund file it under "Real Estate Management & Development". Ares Capital, Oaktree Strategic Credit and Stone Point Credit file it under "Software".
So any "software share" of private credit is partly a fact about the borrowers and partly a fact about who filed them.
One borrower, several sectors
Every BDC prints an industry next to each holding in its schedule of investments, and each lender chooses its own industry list. Here is what the June 30, 2026 schedules show for two borrowers held by more than one lender.
| Borrower | Filed as software by (among others) | Filed under another sector by |
|---|---|---|
| MRI Software | Ares Capital, Oaktree Strategic Credit, Stone Point Credit, Blackstone Private Credit Fund, Blackstone Secured Lending Fund, T. Rowe Price OHA Select, Golub Capital BDC, Franklin BSP Capital, Antares Strategic Credit | Morgan Stanley Direct Lending, North Haven: "Real Estate Management & Development" |
| Symplr Software | Golub Capital BDC, Golub Capital Private Credit | Sixth Street Lending Partners, Sixth Street Specialty Lending: "Healthcare" |
The filings behind each row: Morgan Stanley Direct Lending 10-Q (opens in a new tab), North Haven 10-Q (opens in a new tab), Ares Capital 10-Q (opens in a new tab), Oaktree Strategic Credit 10-Q (opens in a new tab), Sixth Street Lending Partners 10-Q (opens in a new tab), Golub Capital BDC 10-Q (opens in a new tab).
The filings don't say which label is right, and neither do we. A lender can file a borrower by what it sells or by who buys it, and both habits show up in the schedules.
How often each lender says software
Half the lenders in the chart file every shared software borrower they hold as software. The two Morgan Stanley-advised funds file the fewest. For each lender, we took the shared software borrowers it holds and counted how often its own label says software.
The two shortest bars are the Morgan Stanley funds. June 30, 2026 schedules; lenders holding at least 10 shared software borrowers. A shared software borrower is held by two or more BDCs, and at least one files it under a label containing 'software'. Borrowers are matched by name.
Morgan Stanley Direct Lending and North Haven both list MS Capital Partners Adviser as their adviser. Both file MRI Software under real estate.
The Morgan Stanley funds are a big part of the split, but not all of it. For 13.1% of shared software borrowers, a Morgan Stanley fund uses another label. For 8.2%, some other lender does. Sixth Street files Symplr under "Healthcare" and Crewline Buyer under "Business Services". Oaktree files North Star Acquisitionco under "Education" where Antares calls it software.
Filed by the product, or by the client's industry
Look at the labels the Morgan Stanley funds use for borrowers that other lenders call software. They name an industry the borrower sells into:
- MRI Software and InhabitIQ: "Real Estate Management & Development"
- LeadVenture and Vehlo Purchaser: "Automobiles"
- OEConnection: "Automobile Components"
- PDI TA Holdings: "Consumer Staples Distribution & Retail"
At Franklin BSP, FS KKR, StepStone or Carlyle, each of these is "Software" or "Application Software".
The split runs the other way too. Morgan Stanley Direct Lending files Alert Media as "Software", and Antares files it as "Media". It files IQN Holding as "Software", and Carlyle files it as "Business Services".
Most of the examples above are vertical software, where the product and the customer's industry point to different rows of the sector table.
How the counting rule moves software's share of par
Letting any holder's label count adds 2.4 percentage points to software's share of par. Counting IT services as well adds more. The loans here are first-lien term loans due by 2030.
| How the share is decided | Share of par due by 2030 |
|---|---|
| The holder's own label says software | 15.8% |
| Any holder of the borrower calls it software | 18.2% |
| Software or IT services | 19.8% |
| Any of the above | 22.1% |
"Any holder calls it software" counts a loan as software when any BDC holding a borrower with the same name files it as software. "Software or IT services" also counts loans that our database's own sector field puts under "Software & IT", whatever the lender's label says.
The loans come from the June 30, 2026 schedules of Apollo Debt Solutions, Morgan Stanley Direct Lending, North Haven, MSD Investment, MidCap Financial, Antares Strategic Credit, Stone Point Credit, Diameter Credit and StepStone Private Credit. These are the BDCs whose June 30 schedules in our database tag loans as first lien and carry a maturity year for them. We kept their US dollar term loans that carry a sector label, which is 84.9% of the par due by 2030.
The Morgan Stanley funds hold 39.1% of the labeled par due by 2030 here, so their filing habit moves these shares more than it would in a wider set.
Screen by borrower name, not by sector tag
If you're sizing software exposure in a lender's book, or pulling comps for a software credit, three steps help.
- Start from names. Pull every borrower in the book, then check each against how other holders label it. A borrower any holder calls software belongs in your software screen.
- Know each lender's habit. In the June 30 schedules, the Morgan Stanley funds and Sixth Street file some vertical software by the client's industry. If you compare software share across lenders, recode those labels first, or the lender that files by end market will look light on software.
- Quote the classifier with the share. "Software is 15.8% of par" and "software is 18.2% of par" can describe the same loans, and adding IT services gives 22.1%. Say which rule you used.
All labels and marks here are as of June 30, 2026. Labels can change between quarters, so check each lender's next 10-Q before you reuse a split.
To see every label Morgan Stanley Direct Lending used, open its record below. Each holding names the 10-Q it came from.