Blackstone has raised $4.5bn (€4bn) for its second energy-focused private equity fund.
The investment manager said its Energy Partners II (BEP II) fund had received “significant” interest from existing and new investors.
Investors in the fund, it said, included US corporate and state pension funds.
Sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, endowments, foundations and family offices also backed the fund.
Blackstone said the new vehicle, like its $2.4bn BEP I predecessor, would invest in “control-oriented equity and equity-linked interests in companies, assets and development projects in the energy and natural resources sector”.
David Foley, senior managing director and chief executive of Blackstone Energy Partners, said the raising puts the fund in a position to take “full advantage of the significant recent cyclical downturn in oil and gas prices”.
The company has deployed more than $8bn in this strategy.
Blackstone said its $16bn diversified global private equity fund would continue to invest alongside BEP II in energy transactions on a 50/50 basis.
