Blackstone Inc. raised $1.3 billion for its first private equity fund tailored to wealthy-but-not-super-rich investors, the latest vehicle to target the growing number of high net worth individuals.
The offering from the world’s largest asset manager, with roughly $1 trillion in total assets, brings buyout strategies favored by institutional investors like pension funds to individuals. The investment behemoth disclosed in a securities filing on Monday that its Blackstone Private Equity Strategies Fund, or BXPE, was invested in digital infrastructure, technology, business services, financial services and aerospace and defense firms.
The launch comes as Blackstone’s flagship Real Estate Income Trust, or BREIT, has limited investor withdrawals. That $62 billion fund (as of the end of last November) invests in rental housing and industrial and data centers, and is a bellwether of the U.S. property market.
Blackstone had initially wanted to aim BXPE at investors with a net worth of just over $1 million, according to Bloomberg. But that strategy would have subjected it to additional consumer protection regulations, so the firm targeted investors worth at least $5 million.
The fund is part of efforts by Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman to expand the giant’s fundraising beyond pensions, sovereign wealth funds and other institutional investors that typically pledge hundreds of millions of dollars at a time. KKR, Apollo Global Management, Brookfield and Carlyle Group also have funds targeting wealthy individual investors.
Blackstone began designing the new fund in 2017, with plans to launch by early 2023. But the firm delayed BXPE’s launch after the markets turned in 2022 and investors grew skittish.
