Blackstone’s fifth European opportunistic real estate fund has attracted €7.8bn from investors.
The investment manager said Real Estate Partners Europe V is the largest ever dedicated European real estate fund.
The fundraise is just above the €7.5bn predicted by IPE Real Estate in April.
Anthony Myers, Blackstone’s head of real estate in Europe, said the fund is over 20% invested or committed.
“We continue to see compelling opportunities to deploy capital across the continent, while delivering certainty to sellers and adding value to our properties,” Myers said.
“We are grateful to our limited partners for their continued support.”
As reported earlier this year, one of the strategies for the fund will be to acquire office buildings in London and other major European cities with high vacancies – or those facing high vacancies in the near term – at deep discounts to estimated replacement cost.
The New York-headquartered company last week confirmed the €12.25bn anticipated sale of its European logistics arm Logicor to China Investment Corporation.
This week it also announced its intention to buy a €3.8bn Finnish property company.
Blackstone recently overtook Brookfield Asset Management as the world’s largest real estate investment manager, with gross assets under management (AUM) of €143.2bn, according to the annual ANREV/INREV/NCREIF fund manager survey.
In April, Blackstone revealed it had $32.2bn of “dry powder” to invest in global real estate.
