Blackstone to invest $32.2b in global real estate
The Blackstone Group has $32.2 billion of “dry powder” to invest in global real estate, according to first-quarter results.
The amount is approximately one-third of the $94.3 billion available to the private equity firm to invest across all asset classes. It is up 6 percent year-over-year, driven by recent fundraises for the firm’s latest European opportunistic real estate fund.
Blackstone’s opportunistic funds’ carrying value was up 5.7 percent in the quarter, primarily due to gains in private investment values, and its core-plus funds’ carrying value was up 3.1 percent during the first quarter 2017.
Realizations were at $6.7 billion in the quarter, driven by the sale of a 25 percent stake in Hilton and the disposition of a Japanese residential property portfolio. The firm completed the $1.8 billion initial public offering for Invitation Homes, the second largest REIT IPO ever.
And the firm invested $2.7 billion in the quarter including in OfficeFirst, a leading office-focused German real estate business. Also, Blackstone committed an additional $1.4 billion for a 2.4 million-square-meter European urban logistics portfolio.
For its fundraising efforts, Blackstone raised $2.5 billion, including $1.1 billion in core-plus funds, $630 million in BREDS and $478 million from the initial launch of Blackstone’s nontraded REIT, Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust.
The firm’s total real estate assets under management reached $102.1 billion during the first quarter.
The following are IREN headlines about Blackstone’s activities this year:
Blackstone REIT buys multifamily portfolio for $430m
Blackstone sells Singapore property for $260m
Blackstone JV targets logistics market
Blackstone buys 4 industrial assets in Australia
Blackstone JV buys $1.4b logistics assets
Blackstone buys Shanghai luxury property
Blackstone raises €6.7b for European fund
Blackstone buys French logistics portfolio for €233m
Blackstone to launch $5b Asia fund
Blackstone sells London hotel for £300m
Blackstone to acquire OfficeFirst Immobilien
