The buyout firm’s third Asia fund is more than twice the size of its 2021 pool on a standalone basis, surpassing its $10 billion target.
Overall, it’s about a fifth more than the previous vintage because the new fund didn’t receive commitments from the firm’s global buyout vehicle, according to Amit Dixit, Blackstone’s head of private equity for Asia. The 2021 pool included about $4.6 billion from the flagship fund.
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It’s the nature of the evolution in the Blackstone model,” Dixit said. Newer vehicles typically “start as a sharing with the global flagship fund, and as a program matures and is successful, it becomes more standalone.”
The fundraising underscores a gap between global mega-managers and smaller rivals. Institutional investors, pinched by a broader slowdown in private equity distributions, are concentrating capital with firms that possess deep operating benches and a track record of boosting
earnings, rather than relying on the multiple expansion that fueled the region’s boom in the past decade.
The firm attracted 173 new investors, bringing the number of backers to 260, underscoring strong demand from first-time investors, he said. The capital raise comes as the New York-based firm doubles down on India and Japan, which have become central to its regional strategy and drivers of its strongest returns.
The push was bolstered by the performance of its second Asia fund, which has generated a net internal rate of return of 27% as of March, according to public filings.
