Mingtiandi

Asia real estate and outbound investment news

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
Sign Up / Login Logout

Lost your password?
Register
Forgotten Password
Cancel

Register For This Site

A password will be e-mailed to you.

  • Capital Markets
  • Events
    • Mingtiandi 2023 Event Calendar
    • Mingtiandi APAC Residential Forum 2023
    • Mingtiandi Asia Logistics Forum 2023
    • Mingtiandi Hong Kong Focus Forum 2023
    • Mingtiandi APAC Data Centre Forum 2023
    • Mingtiandi Asia Office Strategies Forum 2023
    • Mingtiandi Singapore Focus Forum 2023
    • More Events
  • MTD TV
  • People
  • Logistics
  • Data Centres
  • Asia Outbound
  • Retail
  • Research & Policy
  • Advertise

Blackstone Raises $4B for Asia Real Estate Fund on the Way to $9B Target

2021/10/26 by Christopher Caillavet Leave a Comment

Embassy-Industrial-Park3

Blackstone bought out Warburg Pincus’s Embassy Office Parks JV in May

Private equity titan Blackstone reported what it dubbed “the best results in our 36 years of history”, with distributable earnings more than doubling in the third quarter to $1.6 billion, as the Manhattan-based firm also shared some fresh milestones regarding its fundraising in Asia and around the world.

In an earnings call late last week, Blackstone said its corporate private equity funds and opportunistic real estate funds appreciated by 49 percent and 36 percent respectively over the last 12 months, with the group’s 16 perpetual vehicles generating nearly half of total inflows.

“This remarkable performance is the result of the way we position investor capital towards areas of the economy with superior secular growth, coupled with our world-class portfolio management capabilities,” said Steve Schwarzman, Blackstone’s chairman, CEO and co-founder. “Real estate, for example, nearly 70 percent of our portfolio, is concentrated on the fast-growing logistics, rental housing and life sciences office sectors, compared to less than 10 percent a decade ago.”

For Blackstone’s third Asia property fund, Real Estate Partners Asia III, president and chief operating officer Jon Gray said the firm has closed on $4 billion and expects to raise $9 billion, with that result being announced just days before reports emerged that cross-town rival Warburg Pincus had also raised record amounts of cash for its first-ever Asia-focused real estate fund.

Asia Industrial Focus

Blackstone aims to raise 30 percent more capital for its Real Estate Partners Asia III than it did for version two of the strategy, which had bagged $7.1 billion in capital commitments at its final closing in 2018.

Jonathan-Gray-Blackstone

Blackstone president Jonathan Gray is on his way to $9B for the firm’s Asia fund

This year Blackstone has deployed much of its cash cache into industrial assets in Asia, particularly in India, where it has been a pioneer in the country’s rollout of REITs.

In September, the firm completed the $40 million purchase of a North Delhi warehouse from local developer TARC, with that deal following just a few months after Blackstone had bought out Warburg Pincus’s Embassy Industrial Parks joint venture in a deal reportedly valued at $700 million.

The fund manager has also stuck with industrial in Hong Kong, buying a workshop in the city’s Fanling area for $36 million in July to form part of an emerging data centre hub. That New Territories pickup came after Blackstone had purchased a Kowloon industrial tower for $65 million in April.

Just today, reports emerged in the Australian media that Blackstone is in talks to acquire close to a half stake in Australia’s Dexus Logistics Trust to expand its industrial holdings Down Under.

The earnings call made no mention of Blackstone’s failed $3 billion buyout of developer Soho China, cancelled last month after running into trouble with mainland regulators.

Eager Investors

Blackstone said its overall cash inflows totalled $47 billion in the third quarter and $148 billion over the last 12 months, nearly half of which went into its perpetual vehicles.

“Our real estate core-plus business remains the largest driver of perpetual capital, as well as fee-related earnings at the firm,” Gray said. “In less than eight years, AUM has grown to nearly $100 billion across six vehicles, roughly the size of our opportunistic real estate business.”

The third quarter was Blackstone’s biggest ever for deployment, with $37 billion invested and an additional $30 billion committed to pending deals. The largest commitments were to rental housing, transport infrastructure, logistics and sustainability-linked businesses.

Funds Flow to Asia

While Blackstone seems certain to keep its crown as king of the fund managers, fellow New York player Warburg Pincus plans to make a fight of it in the region with its first Asian real estate fund.

As first reported by PERE, and confirmed by an industry insider contacted by Mingtiandi, Warburg Pincus is nearing a final close on the fund at the hard cap of $3 billion, or double its original $1.5 billion target, after less than 12 months of fundraising.

“This is a major milestone for Warburg Pincus,” the insider said. “Their real estate team has previously focused on platform deals such as ESR and ARA. The significance here is that they have officially moved into hard assets.”

The fund will focus on “new economy” sectors like data centres, multi-family residential and logistics and has received over 50 percent of its commitments from institutional investors in Asia, PERE said, citing four sources.

Pawara Laothamatas provided reporting for this story.

Share this now

  • LinkedIn
  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email

Filed Under: Finance Tagged With: Blackstone, daily-sp, Featured, fund raising, highlight, Warburg Pincus

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get Mingtiandi Delivered

MTD TV

Princeton Digital Sees APAC Network Expand with Hyperscaler Demand: MTD TV
Forest, ALP, C&W, Yardi See Warehouse Technologies Becoming the Norm: MTD TV

More MTD TV Videos>>

People in the News

Terence Li Arch
Asia Real Estate People in the News 2023-05-22
Varun Malik VGAP
Rush Desai’s Varsity Group APAC Hires Former MSCI Exec in Singapore
Kiyohito Motoyama, director of logistics and industrial
Hines Hires Kiyohito Motoyama as Japan Industrial Head, Adds Two Others to Team
Sandeep Mathrani
WeWork Boss Sandeep Mathrani Steps Down, Joins Sycamore Partners

More Industry Professionals>>

People in the News

Asia Real Estate People in the News 2023-05-22

Terence Li Arch

A promotion at a leading Hong Kong real estate fund manager leads this week’s roundup of people moves from around Asia, … Read More>>

Rush Desai’s Varsity Group APAC Hires Former MSCI Exec in Singapore

Varun Malik VGAP

Rush Desai is adding some senior talent to his team at Varsity Group Asia Pacific in Singapore, with the company … Read More>>

Hines Hires Kiyohito Motoyama as Japan Industrial Head, Adds Two Others to Team

Kiyohito Motoyama, director of logistics and industrial

US developer and fund manager Hines has added three new hires to its Japan team, led by Kiyohito Motoyama as director of … Read More>>

WeWork Boss Sandeep Mathrani Steps Down, Joins Sycamore Partners

Sandeep Mathrani

WeWork’s ongoing turnaround will continue without the leadership of chairman and CEO Sandeep Mathrani, who is leaving … Read More>>

More Industry Professionals>>

Latest Stories

John Graham CPPIB
CPPIB Posts 1.3% Annual Return as Real Estate Investments Sustain Losses
5 Churchill Place
Lenders Seize Cheung Kei’s 5 Churchill Place in London After Default
Wang Jianlin Wanda Getty Images
Wanda Seeks to Refinance $275M Debt Facility and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Sponsored Features

Could Real Estate Ecosystems Be Your New Edge?
Data centers: Empowering a Data-Driven World
Singapore skyline
Asia Pacific Capital Markets: 2023 Insights and Priorities

More Sponsored Features>>

Connect with Mingtiandi

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Real Estate News

  • Capital Markets
  • 2022 Event Calendar
  • MTD TV Archives
  • People
  • Logistics
  • Data Centres
  • Asia Outbound
  • Retail

More Mingtiandi

  • About Mingtiandi
  • Contact Mingtiandi
  • Mingtiandi Membership
  • Newsletter Subscription
  • Advertise
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy
  • Join the Mingtiandi Team


© 2007-2023 China Advertising Media Ltd (Samoa). All rights reserved.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.