Wellington, Vanguard, Blackstone Launch Two Public-Private Funds
Wellington Management, Vanguard, and Blackstone launched two new closed-end funds designed to combine public and private market investments in a single allocation for individual investors, with the products initially available only through Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank advisers, the companies said in a joint statement.
“For five decades, Vanguard has worked to improve investor outcomes through disciplined active management, low-cost index strategies, and a client-focused approach,” said Greg Davis, president and chief investment officer of Vanguard. “Through this collaboration with Wellington and Blackstone, we are extending that mission into integrated public and private market solutions.”
The first fund, WVB All Markets Fund, blends Wellington’s active public equity management, Vanguard’s active fixed income and index strategies, and exposure to Blackstone’s perpetual private markets platform. It will trade under the tickers WVBIX, WVBAX, and WVBMX. The second, WVB Blackstone All Privates Fund, provides a single access point to Blackstone’s private equity, private infrastructure, private real estate, and private credit strategies.
Wellington serves as investment manager for both funds; Blackstone and Vanguard are not sponsors, advisers, or underwriters of the vehicles, according to the companies’ statement.
The funds are structured as closed-end vehicles offering periodic liquidity rather than daily redemptions, a structure common to interval and tender-offer funds in the alternatives space. WVB All Markets Fund intends to offer to repurchase up to 10% of outstanding shares each quarter, while WVB Blackstone All Privates Fund intends to offer up to 3% per quarter – a narrower repurchase window than the 5% quarterly caps used by Blackstone’s other perpetual retail vehicles, including Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust and Blackstone Private Credit Fund.
The funds will be available at launch to Merrill and Bank of America Private Bank clients through their advisers. The companies said they anticipate broader adoption from the registered investment adviser channel over time and plan to explore additional distribution across the wealth management ecosystem.
Jon Gray, president and chief operating officer of Blackstone, said the firm has delivered private markets performance for individual investors for more than two decades. “These new solutions bring together the performance and scale of Blackstone’s private markets platform with the exceptional strengths of Wellington and Vanguard, creating simple and comprehensive access for advisers and their clients to help build long-term wealth,” he said.
Jean Hynes, chief executive officer and managing partner of Wellington Management, said the launch reflects the strength of the three-way alliance, combining Wellington’s active management and asset allocation capabilities with Vanguard’s fixed-income and indexing expertise and Blackstone’s position in private markets.
The launch comes amid uneven investor sentiment toward some existing nontraded and perpetual capital vehicles. Blackstone disclosed on its July 23 second-quarter earnings call that BCRED, its flagship private credit fund, continued to see elevated repurchase requests even as redemption pressure eased heading into the third quarter, while BREIT posted its best net flows in nearly four years. Other nontraded credit vehicles, including business development company funds managed by Apollo and Blue Owl, have also limited investor withdrawals in recent months after requests exceeded standard quarterly caps.
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