Blackstone looks to manage $1trln

NEW YORK: Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest manager of alternative investments such as private equity and real estate, said on Friday it could be overseeing $1 trillion in assets by 2026.

The firm currently manages $439 billion, a five-fold increase since it went public in 2007.The ambitious target highlights how Blackstone, like many peers, is eager to take advantage of healthy investor demand for private equity and other forms alternative asset management.

There is, however, concern in the industry that fundraising will suffer when the next economic downturn comes, as it did in 2009 during the financial crisis.

“Now you may ask ... have you tapped out? Are you hitting some ceiling? The answer to that is a definitive ‘no,’” Blackstone President and Chief Operating Officer Jon Gray said at an investor day event, the firm’s first since 2014. Gray was promoted earlier this year from head of Blackstone’s real estate division.

In a presentation, Blackstone said assets under management could hit $600 billion in the next two years or so, $800 billion in four to six years and pass $1 trillion in eight-plus years.