Blackstone Has $15.8 Billion Final Close for Latest Global Real Estate Fund

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) today announced the final close of its latest global real estate fund, Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII (“BREP VIII”), at $15.8 billion. Blackstone currently manages two regional opportunistic real estate funds, the $8.2 billion Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe IV and the $5 billion Blackstone Real Estate Partners Asia.

Jon Gray, Blackstone’s global head of real estate, said, “We are grateful to our limited partners for their continued support, and remain committed to delivering favorable returns. The size of this fund gives us the ability to commit capital in scale with speed and certainty.”

Added Kathleen McCarthy, the global chief operating officer of Blackstone’s real estate group, “This fundraise reflects the strong relationship we’ve had with our limited partners for more than two decades. The fund is already 20% committed and we continue to see compelling opportunities to deploy capital.”

Among the fund’s initial investments are the purchase of significant real estate assets from General Electric Capital Corporation, and the announced agreement to acquire Strategic Hotels, a publicly traded real estate investment trust.

Substantially all of the capital in the fund comes from investors that had previously participated in Blackstone’s real estate funds. These investors are both from the US and around the world.

About Blackstone Real Estate

Blackstone is a global leader in real estate investing. Blackstone’s real estate business was founded in 1991 and has approximately $92 billion in investor capital under management. Blackstone’s real estate portfolio includes hotel, office, retail, industrial and residential properties in the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Major investments include Hilton Worldwide, Invitation Homes (single family homes), Logicor (pan-European logistics), SCP (Chinese shopping malls), and prime office buildings in the world’s major cities. Blackstone real estate also operates one of the leading real estate finance platforms, including management of the publicly traded Blackstone Mortgage Trust.

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