Blackstone Real Estate Partners V Closes on $5.25 Billion
New York, June 8, 2006: The Blackstone Group today announced the closing of Blackstone Real Estate Partners V (BREP V) with capital commitments totaling $5.25 billion creating the largest real estate opportunity fund ever raised. With BREP International II, which closed on €1.55 billion at the end of last year, Blackstone now has over $7 billion of available capital, the world’s largest pool of capital for real estate opportunity investing. The firm has raised a total of seven real estate funds since inception, five for general investing and two with a specific focus on Western Europe, with total capital of approximately $12.7 billion.
Blackstone’s Real Estate group numbers more than 40 investment and asset management professionals with broad experience across most real estate categories including hotels, office, residential, retail, and other commercial properties. In the past two years Blackstone has completed ten public to private transactions including Wyndham, La Quinta, Meristar, NHP, Hospitality Europe, and CarrAmerica. Over the past twelve years the group has completed more than 180 separate investments in North America and Europe with a total transaction value of approximately $50 billion.
Jonathan Gray, Senior Managing Director and New York-based co-head of Blackstone’s Real Estate group, said “We are delighted by this very significant vote of confidence from our investors in our group’s ability to identify and complete profitable transactions.” Chad Pike, Senior Managing Director and London-based co-head of Blackstone’s Real Estate group added, “We have a solid pipeline of potential real estate investments both in Europe and North America and this new fund will give us the resources to take full advantage of those opportunities.”
Park Hill Real Estate Group acted as placement agent in the raising of Blackstone Real Estate Partners V.
About the Blackstone Group
The Blackstone Group, a global private investment and advisory firm, was founded in 1985. The firm has to date raised more than $59 billion for alternative asset investing. In addition to Real Estate, The Blackstone Group’s core businesses include Private Equity Investing, Corporate Debt Investing, Distressed Securities Investing, Hedge Funds, Mutual Fund Management, Private Placement, Marketable Alternative Asset Management, and Investment Banking Advisory Services. http://www.blackstone.com/.