Strat Partners nears final close with HNW push – exclusive

The Blackstone Group’s Strategic Partners Fund VI has collected about $284.4 million from high net worth individuals and is expected to hold a final close in the next few weeks, Secondaries Investor has learned.

The wealthy investors’ commitments were pooled through two separate feeder funds, which each became a limited partner in Fund VI.

Blackstone/Strategic Partners declined to comment.

Blackstone Strategic Partners Secondaries VI Trust raised $226.4 million and Blackstone Strategic Partners Secondaries VI Offshore raised about $58 million, according to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission last month. Fund VI Trust raised capital from domestic high net worth individuals, while Fund VI Offshore consists of commitments from international high net worth individuals, the source told Secondaries Investor.

Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, a broker and investment advisory unit of Bank of America Merrill Lynch is listed as receiving sales compensation for the funds on the SEC documents. The bank declined to comment.

Fund VI launched last year with a $3.5 billion target and $4.4 billion hard-cap. The fund had collected $3.2 billion as of mid-July, according to Blackstone’s second quarter earnings report. Including the commitments from high net worth individuals, the fund has reached its target. The fund was expected to hold a final close by the end of August, however the firm is still waiting on one investor to finalise its signatory process, according to a  source familiar with the matter.

LPs in the fund include the Minnesota State Board of Investment, the Houston Police Officers’ Pension System and the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System, according to PEI’s Research and Analytics division.

Fund VI has already begun investing, acquiring a stake in 3i Eurofund III from the State of Wisconsin Investment Board and a stake in Ares European Real Estate Fund III from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Blackstone Strategic Partners was created through the acquisition of Credit Suisse’s ‘Strategic Partners’ group, which the bank sold to Blackstone in August 2013. Blackstone Strategic Partners is made up of a 29-person team focused on secondaries and headed by Stephen Can and Verdun Perry.

Blackstone Strategic Partners is also expected to launch a separate real estate secondaries fund after Fund VI closes. The firm hired Mark Burton from H/2 Capital to oversee its real estate secondaries investments in July.