Blackstone Will Raise Year's Largest & Most Underwhelming Fund
The Blackstone Group has been the tortoise of private equity fundraising -- slow, steady and winning. Now, however, the last part of that fiscal trinity is in question. Blackstone yesterday sent a letter to its limited partners, saying that it would hold a final close on its sixth global buyout fund at, or around, the end of Q2. The firm also said the vehicle had secured approximately $9 billion in commitments to date. News of the letter was first reported by Private Equity Insider, and has since been confirmed by peHUB. Why is the letter notable? Because it basically confirms that Blackstone won't get anywhere close to the $20 billion it wanted when it began fundraising in October 2007 (a predecessor fund closed a few months earlier on $21.7 billion). Blackstone also is unlikely to hit its downwardly-revised $15 billion target, considering that it's only raised around $1.1 billion over the past 17 months (and virtually nothing over the past two quarters).
