Blackstone has leapfrogged Brookfield Asset Management and CBRE Global Investors to become the largest real estate fund manager according to a new global study.
The INREV/ANREV 2014 Fund Manager Survey places Blackstone Group top of its list of 147 companies with €78.6bn in assets under management, just ahead of Brookfield Asset Management at €78.3bn.
Blackstone’s property assets under management rose by €11.5bn from €67.1bn, in the 12 months leading up to the end of 2013.
Brookfield, which came top in last year’s survey, saw its real estate AUM fall by €4.7bn from €83bn over the same period. CBRE Global Investors, meanwhile, dropped from second to third as its AUM fell from €69.6bn to €64.7bn.
“The top of the tree has shifted again, but there isn’t much between the leading performers,” said Matthias Thomas, INREV CEO.
“There is a clear battle for domination at the top, with both the Blackstone Group and Brookfield managing total assets worth at least 50% more than any other firm outside the top three.”
Both fourth placed UBS Global Asset Management and fifth placed AXA Real Estate – the largest fund manager in Europe according to the survey – were said to have around €47.8bn.
The largest manager in Asia was Mapletree Investments with €14.1bn.
The findings were based on figures from the end of 2013. Blackstone has since raised significant capital for several real estate funds, while embarking on a core investment programme.
The survey is based on 147 fund managers with total AUM of €1.4trn, of which €522 billion (37%) is concentrated in the top 10 fund managers.
