Blackstone Looks To Secondary Market To Cash Out Investors In $11B Fund

Blackstone is looking at a secondary sale for one of its real estate funds amid attempts to appease its investors eager for an exit.

Blackstone sign
Bisnow/Sasha Jones

The firm has begun reaching out to potential buyers from Blackstone Property Partners, which would allow existing investors to liquidate, Bloomberg reported.

Blackstone's BPP is a multifund strategy with $58B in combined assets, according to Bloomberg. It invests institutional capital in long-term, income-producing assets, including data centers, industrial and office buildings.

But revenue performance per share tanked amid interest rate hikes starting in 2022, which has led to investors seeking to withdraw their cash — like the Indiana Public Retirement System, which issued a full redemption for its $132M investment last year after negative annualized returns over three periods.

But funds like BPP have a limit on how much investors can cash out in a quarter.

While the fund has shown early signs of improvement in recent quarters, BPP has been taking steps to alleviate pressure on investors, Bloomberg reported.

The fund reduced management fees by 30% for 18 months for investors who kept less than 20% of their net asset value in the redemption queue last year, according to a document filed by a California pension.

The secondary sale would be of shares in the BPP U.S. fund, which had a net asset value of $11B, Bloomberg reported. The core funds own properties including Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, an 11,200-unit neighborhood on Manhattan's Lower East Side.

A handful of massive real estate funds have faced challenges amid high interest rates, leading to an increase in redemptions across the board.

Invesco Ltd. in August offered its U.S. core real estate fund investors a chance to liquidate through an upcoming tender offer, Bloomberg reported.

The secondary markets, where equity is exchanged in a capital stack but the operator stays the same, have been an increasing exit strategy for real estate investors following the rise in interest rates.

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