US private equity giant Blackstone plans to launch a European property fund to take advantage of falling property values across Europe's markets, the Financial Times newspaper reported Monday. The launch of the new investment vehicle -Blackstone's third internationally-focused real estate fund - follows the closing in early April of Blackstone Real Estate Partners VI, which raised equity of a total $ 10.9bn (EUR 7bn). 'Our real estate segment is currently in the process of raising our third non-US real estate fund that will focus on European real estate investments', the paper quoted Blackstone as saying during the presentation of its annual results. The firm has raised a total of nine real estate funds since inception, both funds for global investing and funds with a specific focus on Western Europe, with total capital commitments of $ 25.7bn.

US private equity giant Blackstone plans to launch a European property fund to take advantage of falling property values across Europe's markets, the Financial Times newspaper reported Monday. The launch of the new investment vehicle -Blackstone's third internationally-focused real estate fund - follows the closing in early April of Blackstone Real Estate Partners VI, which raised equity of a total $ 10.9bn (EUR 7bn). 'Our real estate segment is currently in the process of raising our third non-US real estate fund that will focus on European real estate investments', the paper quoted Blackstone as saying during the presentation of its annual results. The firm has raised a total of nine real estate funds since inception, both funds for global investing and funds with a specific focus on Western Europe, with total capital commitments of $ 25.7bn.