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Blackstone is launching two new funds for wealthy individual investors in credit and infrastructure.
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Blackstone's largest fund for individual investors, BREIT, has come under fire from critics.
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The 2 funds suggest Blackstone remains bullish on fundraising from individual investors.
Blackstone is doubling down on its offerings for individual investors, despite criticisms over its handling of a real-estate fund known as BREIT.
In an earnings call on Thursday, Steve Schwarzman, Blackstone's chairman and CEO, said the private-equity giant known for investing on behalf of pensions and other large investors plans to launch "several new products in the private wealth channel" focused on wealthy individuals.
Later in the call, Jon Gray, Blackstone's COO and president, provided more details, saying the firm plans to launch the two new funds early next year. First up, he said, will be "an infrastructure vehicle that will provide investors access to the full breadth of the firm's strategies in this area, including equity, secondaries, and credit."
The second will be "a vehicle that will invest across our expansive credit platform," according to Gray.
Those two new funds will join the three funds (BREIT, BXPE, and BCRED) for wealthy individual investors that Blackstone already offers, starting with its launch of BREIT in 2017. Those three funds, together with Blackstone's other offerings for wealthy individuals, now represent $240 billion in assets, according to Gray.
"Our commitment to the $85 trillion private wealth market is stronger than ever," Gray said.
The launches represent a vote of confidence for the firm's private wealth division after more than a year of prorated redemptions raised criticisms of BREIT.
Gray said Blackstone has raised nearly $13 billion for BREIT, BCRED, and BXPE in the first two quarters of the year, more than the firm raised from wealthy individuals in 2023.
New Funds
The two new funds represent investment areas that have so far paid off for the firm's investors.
This quarter, Blackstone surpassed $100 billion in its infrastructure platform, which invests both debt and equity into infrastructure projects like renewable energy, data centers, and supply chain and transportation companies.
Blackstone launched its infrastructure fund for institutional investors in 2017. Since then, Blackstone Infrastructure Partners has generated 16% net returns annually, beating the public infrastructure index by nearly 11%, Gray said.
"As we've been saying for some time, we believe flows in the wealth channel ultimately follow performance," Gray said.