Blackstone to raise $5bn for infrastructure fund

Bloomberg

Blackstone Group LP is nearing a first close of $5 billion for its inaugural infrastructure fund, according to people familiar with the matter.
The fundraising, expected to be finalised this week, is slightly behind schedule but will mark the biggest initial close for a first-time fund across any alternative investment strategy after SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund and the China Structural Reform Fund, according to Preqin. The data exclude funds with a single close. A spokeswoman for New York-based Blackstone
declined to comment.
The planned $40 billion fund — Blackstone Infrastructure Partners — raised eyebrows when it was unveiled last May.
The first close gives Blackstone a dedicated fund in an area where key rivals broke ground more than a decade ago. While the close isn’t as large as some observers expected, the fact that Blackstone has reached this juncture at all signals that naysayers’ prognostications may have been premature.
The capital raising comes even as Trump has yet to deliver on a promise to facilitate the investment of as much as $1.7 trillion in the next decade. “It would be helpful if they do something around infrastructure,” Blackstone President Jonathan Gray said of the federal government in May. Still, “there’s tons to do even without it,” the firm’s chief financial officer, Michael Chae, said on an earnings call in February.
A January memorandum from a Pennsylvania pension plan said Blackstone was seeking $7.5 billion during its initial fundraising phase.
That time frame includes the next nine months, over which there will be additional closes, said some of the people with knowledge of the matter, who requested anonymity because the information is private.
A first close for the infrastructure fund in the current quarter was Blackstone’s intention since inception, Chae said at a conference this month.
Still, the June time stamp is behind the March or April projection set internally, in part because senior hires took longer to get on board, according to people with knowledge of the matter and the Pennsylvania memo.
Investors include the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System, which is cutting a $500 million check, the New Mexico State Investment Council and the Paro-chial Employees’ Retirement System of Louisiana, according to fund disclosures and Bloomberg data.