Strategic Partners raises $1.7bn for real assets

The fund has surpassed its $1bn target and is on the way to being the largest real assets secondaries fund ever raised.

Blackstone’s Strategic Partners has surpassed the target of its latest real asset secondaries fund and is set to continue raising.

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Strategic Partners Real Assets II has raised $1.69 billion. This is not a final close, Secondaries Investor understands.

Another filing for an associated offshore vehicle shows $572 million in funds raised. It is not clear if the two figures should be added together.

The fund’s target is $1 billion, according to a presentation prepared for Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System, which revealed that SP RA II will be “primarily seeking capital appreciation through the purchase of high-quality real assets from investors seeking liquidity prior to fund termination.”

SP RA II made its first sale in April and is using the Uruguayan subsidiary of Compass Group, a Pan-American private equity advisor, as a placement agent, according to the filings.

The portfolio is expected to include utility, power generation, energy renewables, transportation, waste management, shipping, parking and midstream and upstream energy industries, according to the documents.

It aims to do deals ranging in size from $100,000 to $150 million or more, and expects a majority of its investments to be in funds managed by US, UK and western European managers. SP RA II will have a 12-year term with four one-year extensions, the PSERS documents reveal.

PSERS committed $200 million to the fund, according to PEI data.

SP RA II is set to be one of the largest real assets secondaries fund yet raised. In 2017 Ardian raised $1.7 billion for its seventh infrastructure fund, exceeding its $1.5 billion target.

Strategic Partners declined to comment.