With Only $8B Left To Spend In Current Vehicle, Blackstone Plans Next Real Estate Fund

Blackstone is planning to raise its next global real estate fund later this year, according to IPE Real Estate. That is not surprising, considering its current fund is down to its last few billion to spend.

IPE said a report from a meeting of the Los Angeles Water & Power Employees’ Retirement Plan said the pension fund was considering whether to make an investment in the fund, which is expected to launch later this year.

The fund would be Blackstone Real Estate Partners IX. There was no indication of how big the fund would be. Blackstone’s global funds make acquisitions in the U.S. and also co-invest in deals in Europe and Asia.

The fund's predecessor raised $16.4B in April 2015, making it the biggest real estate fund ever. According to Blackstone’s second quarter results, as of 30 June that fund still had $8.4B left to spend. That amount will be eaten into if Blackstone completes the $4.8B deal to take LaSalle Hotel Properties private. It may have some other chunky deals lined up if it expects to need a new fund before the end of the year.

Across all its real estate funds, Blackstone had about $35B to spend as of the end of June, according to its second quarter results.

Buying public companies is a big part of its strategy at the moment — it bought five in the second quarter in the U.S., Europe and Australia.

Speaking at the announcement of the second quarter results last week, Blackstone Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman said the firm was gearing up for a new fundraising “super cycle” which could see its overall assets under management across real estate, private equity, hedge funds and infrastructure rise from $440B to more than $500B.