Blackstone experienced losses across its private equity and credit portfolios last quarter, according to the $941 billion firm’s latest earnings statement.
Officials at the alternative asset giant said that its $276 billion private equity portfolio had losses of 6.7% in the corporate private equity strategy and 2.4% in tactical opportunities during the quarter.
Returns remained positive 10% and 11.2% over the last 12 months, however. As have the investor inflows with more than $68 billion flowing into the firm’s private equity funds over the last year with the firm’s ninth corporate private equity fund seeing $8.8 billion in capital commitments during the second quarter alone.
Overall, as Blackstone approaches the $1 trillion mark in assets, its fundraising momentum has continued.
“Blackstone’s flagship strategies again outperformed public markets and our investors entrusted us with $88 billion of inflows, which represented the second highest quarter of inflows in our 36-year history,” said Stephen Schwarzman, chairman and CEO of Blackstone, in a statement. “This is a testament to our long-term performance, deep client relationships, and the unmatched scale and breadth of our global investment platform.”
Liquid credit strategies also reported losses of 5.5% during the quarter, which officials said were driven by unrealized depreciation in publicly priced securities. Over the past year, the strategy is down 4.2%.
Private credit strategies were down slightly (0.1%) during the same time frame, but remain over the last 12 months with gains of 10.4%. Capital deployment continues at a brisk pace with $14.3 billion flowing into in U.S. direct lending investment.
Real estate was the firm’s top performing strategy, while the multi-manager hedge fund strategy portfolio was up slightly over the past year. Opportunistic funds declined 1.0% in the quarter and appreciated 35% over the last 12 months, Blackstone’s Core+ funds appreciated 2.3% in the quarter and 25.5% over the last year.
The real estate investment team, which currently manages $320 billion, completed the sale of The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, which officials have dubbed the portfolio’s most profitable single asset sale ever, as well as the recapitalization of Mileway, the largest-ever private real estate transaction globally.
Hedge fund flows remained anemic. The $80 billion portfolio, however, did hold the initial close of its second Dislocation fund at $322 million.