Blackstone: Regarding Private Wealth, Our ‘Innovation Is Accelerating’
Private equity giant Blackstone (NYSE:BX) reported its first quarter 2025 results earlier today, reporting net income for the quarter of $1.2 billion. Distributable earnings were $1.4 billion or $1.09 per common share, up 11% year-over-year. Regarding private wealth, Blackstone’s leadership said the firm’s innovation is accelerating.
We’re continuing to expand our product lineup, “providing individual investors deep access to the scale and breadth of the firm,” said Jon Gray, president and chief operating officer of Blackstone.
“Following a very strong 2024, our fundraising in private wealth grew significantly in the first quarter of 2025. And while it’s still early in the second quarter, overall, across private wealth, we have not seen a pullback in sales. We raised $11 billion in the channel in the first quarter, up nearly 40% year-over-year to the highest level in nearly three years,” said Gray.
Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman and chief executive officer of Blackstone, continued: “Today, we manage over $270 billion in the private wealth channel, comprising nearly a quarter of the firm’s total assets under management, which we believe is multiples of the size of our next largest peer. Our vision in this area from the beginning was to provide individuals the same access to private market solutions that many institutions have enjoyed for decades.”
Schwarzman teed up a conversation around the big alliance news from earlier this week. As previously reported by AltsWire, Blackstone, Wellington Management and Vanguard – which oversee $12 trillion in combined assets – announced they are collaborating on developing simplified multi-asset investment solutions that integrate public and private markets as well as active and index strategies with the end goal of transforming how everyday investors access high-quality investment opportunities.
“Blackstone is ideally positioned for this initiative, given our leadership in private markets and our expansive product lineup, including large scale perpetual strategies in private equity, private credit, real estate and infrastructure,” said Schwarzman.
Blackstone Inc.’s new credit fund for individuals is set to debut through the registered investment adviser channel on May 1; Blackstone Private Multi-Asset Credit & Income Fund, or BMACX, was declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on March 10.
Gray said the diversified strategy of BMACX reflects the evolution of private lending into many different areas beyond non-investment grade corporate loans and will invest across Blackstone’s credit platform.
Inflows in the quarter, which reached $62 billion – the highest level in nearly three years – included $832 million of capital raised by Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, a publicly registered non-traded real estate investment trust.
During the earnings call, Blackstone’s leadership said the fund, also known as BREIT, continued to perform well despite volatile markets, even with its best quarter of returns in 18 months occurring in Q1 2025. Since inception, BREIT has generated a 9.4% annualized net return for its largest share class, equating to almost double the return of the public real estate investment trust index on a cumulative basis.
“It’s hard to overstate how valuable the Blackstone brand is in this channel, built on our differentiated performance and extensive network of relationships,” Gray added. As of Feb. 28, 2025, BREIT’s aggregate net asset value was $53.6 billion.
Although there were plenty of things to talk about in the Blackstone pipeline, the topic of the Trump administration’s tariffs was unavoidable.
Schwarzman said the most important questions are “how sustained will this period of uncertainty be, and what are the second-order consequences, both domestically and for foreign countries.”
“We believe a fast resolution is critical to mitigate risks and keep the economy on a growth path,” Schwarzman asserted.
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