Blackstone has raised a further $2.5bn (€2.3bn) for its open-ended infrastructure fund which reopened fundraising in October last year.

During a first-quarter earnings call, Blackstone’s president and chief operating officer Jonathan Gray said the additional capital received for the Blackstone Infrastructure Partners fund was raised during the first three months of the year.

The latest fundraise lifts the fund’s total capital raised since October last year to $9.5bn.

Blackstone Infrastructure Partners raised $14bn at its inaugural fundraising phase in 2019 half of which had been raised from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and the remaining from third-party investors.

According to Blackstone’s latest earnings report, the fund has total assets under management of $27.3bn and has produced a total net return of 25%.

In the earnings document, Blackstone also confirmed teaming up with Italy’s Benetton family to make a €58bn take-private bid for Atlantia, an infrastructure company which oversees five airports and nearly 10,000km of motorway around the globe.

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