Blackstone is seeking to raise $9bn (€7.7bn) for its latest Asia real estate fund and has reopened fundraising for its $14bn infrastructure fund.
During a third-quarter earnings call on Thursday, president and chief operating officer Jonathan Gray said Blackstone had raised $4bn for Blackstone Real Estate Partners Asia III and expected to more than double this to “approximately $9bn”.
This would make the opportunistic fund 30% larger than its predecessor, which raised $7.1bn in 2018.
IPE Real Assets recently reported that the Minnesota State Board of Investment was planning to invest $100m in the latest fund.
Gray also said Blackstone has decided to reopen fundraising for Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, which raised $14bn in 2019 and has the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia as an anchor investor.
Blackstone chairman, CEO and co-founder Stephen Schwarzman said that, like its core-plus real estate vehicles, the open-ended infrastructure fund would begin to raise capital on a quarterly basis.
“We feel terrific about this infrastructure business,” he said. “Investors like this asset class a lot. They are underexposed to it, and there are not many places where there are open-ended funds that provide liquidity over time and that they find attractive as well.
“So this is a business that today at $14bn is small, I believe, relative to its long-term potential.”
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