Blackstone has secured $5.5bn in capital commitments for its latest infrastructure secondaries strategy.
Blackstone said the amount raised for Strategic Partners Infrastructure IV, and its related committed programme vehicles, makes it “the world’s largest dedicated infrastructure secondaries fund raised to-date”.
The previous fund in the series, Strategic Partners Infrastructure III, had a final close of $3.75bn in June 2020.
As previously reported, the Strategic Partners Infrastructure IV fund secured commitments from a number of US pension funds, including $200m from Teachers Retirement System of the State of Illinois, $75m from the San Francisco Employees Retirement System and $100m from the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System.
Strategic Partners Infrastructure IV, a global core and core-plus infrastructure secondaries fund, expects to generate a mid-teens internal rate of return.
Verdun Perry, senior managing director and global head of Blackstone Strategic Partners, said: “This fundraise reflects the breadth of our platform, the power of the Blackstone Strategic Partners brand, and our commitment to generating strong risk-adjusted returns for our investors.
“The substantial scale we’ve built over two decades positions us well to capitalise on the growing opportunity set across the infrastructure secondary market.”
Mark Bhupathi, senior managing director and head of Blackstone Strategic Partners infrastructure, said: “We are incredibly grateful to our investors for their continued support.
“With our scale, global reach, and deep insights, we look forward to deploying this capital in one of the fastest growing segments of the secondary market.”
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