Australian alternative credit manager Metrics Credit Partners has suspended investor withdrawals from some of its funds in the latest sign of stress in the country’s A$200bn (£106bn) private credit market.

The firm, which manages around A$40bn, has temporarily suspended applications and redemptions in the unlisted wholesale funds behind its listed trusts after disclosing earlier this week that its auditor, KPMG, had disagreed with how some of their assets were valued, according to ASX filings.

KPMG has also said it will not be able to sign off the listed trusts’ financial reports by the 30 September deadline.

The freeze follows Metrics’ decision on Monday to suspend trading in three of its ASX-listed funds: two private credit funds, Metrics Master Income Trust and Metrics Income Opportunities Trust, and its real estate debt and equity fund, Metrics Real Estate Multi-Strategy Fund.

The suspension came after KPMG made “different decisions” in relation to inputs and probability weightings from those used in Metrics’ preliminary financial reports, separate filings with the ASX revealed.

Following KPMG’s audit findings, Metrics marked down all three funds earlier this week. Net tangible asset values have been cut by 12.16 per cent at Metrics Real Estate Multi-Strategy Fund, 10.08 per cent at Metrics Income Opportunities Trust and 1.99 per cent at Metrics Master Income Trust.

The move follows similar steps by other Australian managers exposed to Sydney-based housing developer Bathla Group, whose collapse in late August left some 40 lenders owed around A$3bn and put the country’s private credit market in the spotlight.

CVS Lane Capital Partners suspended applications and redemptions across its First Mortgage Fund and Property Finance Fund in late August. It has been reported that the firm had exposure to Bathla through nine separate loans.

Sydney-based fund manager Centuria Bass moved earlier, pausing redemptions and applications to the Centuria Bass Credit Fund and the Bass Property Credit Fund on 14 August, after an increase in redemption requests driven by concerns about Bathla.

The moves in Australia also follow strain among US business development companies (BDCs), which have faced heavy redemptions over the past year amid concerns over credit quality and the sector’s high exposure to software companies.

Read more: Australian regulator cracks down on three private credit products