Blackstone’s overall assets under management broke through the $300bn mark in the first quarter of 2015, with its real estate division alone now managing $92.8bn of assets, up 14% year-on-year.
The figure, announced in the company’s quarterly results, does not include its elements of the $23bn of assets currently being bought by the firm’s various funds alongside Wells Fargo from GE Capital.
The acquisition of GE Capital’s real estate assets will result in more than $3bn of invested capital across vehicles, the company estimates, some of this will be used to launch an eighth global opportunistic fund.
The company’s existing opportunistic real estate funds carrying value appreciated 8.2% in the first quarter and 24.4% over the 12 months to the end of March.
The business also raised a further $16.4bn for the funds in the first quarter of 2015, including $14.5bn from one institutional partner, a first for the private equity firm.
Over the quarter the funds invested $1.4bn, with a further $3.9bn committed but not yet deployed.
Performance fees rose by 89% to more than $812m based on realisations over the quarter of $9.1bn, this was a rise of more than four times on the prior year period.
Fee revenues were down 3% year-on-year to $158m.
