Blackstone chief defends BREIT decision of limiting withdraws

Jon Gray, Blackstone president and COO, defends the firm’s the Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT) decision to limiting withdrawals from the $69 billion REIT, on CNBC.

It followed redemption requests that exceeded previously set limits. The company’s stock has fallen 8 percent over the past five days amid a controversy that included a Barclays downgrade of the alternative investment firm.

“We set up the product with limitations on liquidity,” Gray told CNBC’s David Faber during a live “Squawk on the Street” interview. “We described it as semi-liquid because we knew at some point there would be a period of volatility, and we didn’t want to sell assets at the wrong time under pressure.”

Also, Blackstone chief executive Stephen Schwarzman on Wednesday disputed the idea that the restrictions reflected problems at the fund