Blackstone’s latest European fund has attracted the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana.
The US pension fund is committing up to $50m (€45.3m) to the Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe V fund.
Blackstone declined to comment on the commitment, which will makes Louisiana Teachers one of the first investors to go into Europe V.
The company is looking to raise $7bn for the fund this year, as reported here.
Louisiana Teachers, which has Hamilton Lane as its general investment consultant, said the fund would focus on financially distressed but physically high-quality properties in areas where the manager pursued a ‘buy it, fix it and sell it’ strategy.
The expected hold period on investments is 3-5 years.
Most of the fund’s capital will be invested in office, industrial, residential, retail and hotel assets in the UK, France and Germany, as well as Eastern and Southern Europe and Scandinavia.
Investments for the fund will be between €10m and €400m.
Blackstone is planning to make approximately 60-70 investments for the fund, with distressed sellers providing an opportunity.
Blackstone will seek individual properties or portfolios, as well as investments in real estate operating companies, for the fund.
Hamilton Lane data for the pension fund showed the €245.7m of realised capital for Europe Fund IV produced a 58.1% gross IRR.
The figures are based on a total of four realised investments as of September last year.
