11:36 AM
Blackstone Raises $15 Billion for Buyout Fund: Report
Blackstone is close to completing a $15 billion buyout fund, which would be its largest since the financial crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
In order to raise those funds, the firm had to cast its net wider than its longtime U.S. and European investors who contributed smaller sums than in the past, sources told the newspaper.
The Journal added that top Blackstone executives, including founder Steven Schwarzman and President Hamilton James met with government and private entities in China, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, and Malaysia in order to raise funding.
But in spite of Blackstone's success in building the buyout fund, the fundraising landscape is still a long ways off from pre-crisis levels, sources told the newspaper.
"Although the fundraising environment is better now than it has been at anytime since the financial meltdown, we are still far from the halcyon days of 2006-2007," John Morris, an investor in private equity firms told the Wall Street Journal. "Any manager that can raise over $5 billion in this market is an outlier."
As the Senior Editor of Advanced Trading, Justin Grant plays a key role in steering the magazine's coverage of the latest issues affecting the buy-side trading community. Since joining Advanced Trading in 2010, Grant's news analysis has touched on everything from the latest ... View Full Bio