Performance watch: Blackstone’s PE funds

Blackstone chief executive Stephen Schwarzman told investors on the firm’s second-quarter earnings call in July that the ability of the firm to continue raising large-scale capital “begins and ends with investment performance”.

The firm is ramping up its fundraising ‘supercycle’ and expects to push assets under management above $500 billion in the first half of next year. Blackstone’s next flagship fund is expected to be around $20 billion, chief operating officer Jon Gray confirmed on the call. It will launch in the next quarter, with a first close anticipated in the first half of 2019.

With performance front and centre of any attempts to raise further capital, sister publication Private Equity International looks at how Blackstone’s previous vehicles have fared.