Blackstone private wealth AUM hits $330B as distributable earnings fall 9%

Blackstone's assets managed for individual investors reached a record $330 billion in the third quarter, up 15% from a year earlier, with nearly $9 billion of sales across its private wealth platform. The firm reported Thursday.

Distributable earnings, the cash measure Blackstone uses to set its dividend, fell 9% to $1.72 billion, or $1.32 a share, while fee-related earnings rose 6% to $1.57 billion, or $1.26 a share. Reuters reported the profit beat analyst expectations, and InvestmentNews reported the shares rose nearly 6% after the release.

BXPE raised a record $2.9 billion; BXINFRA brought in $1.1 billion, its strongest quarter since launch. The private credit strategy for individuals had gross sales of almost $750 million, and the newly launched hedge fund solution raised about $400 million. Those four figures add to roughly $5.2 billion against the $9 billion platform total.

Blackstone said fundraising for its perpetual strategies rose materially from the second quarter even though credit sales slowed; BCRED redemption requests stayed elevated in the third quarter, InvestmentNews reported. Perpetual strategies have no fixed end date and are the main vehicles advisors use with clients.

The firm is also widening the number of ways clients can reach its products, launching a multi-strategy vehicle for investors outside the US that it calls Blackstone in a box. The first two funds from its alliance with Wellington Management and Vanguard Group went live in the third quarter, and Blackstone said it sees significant expansion potential in retirement accounts, helped by hiring a retirement plan veteran to lead defined contribution sales.

As this publication argued in September, Bcred's 5% gate puts the semi-liquid clock on the RIA: the firm's $77 billion private credit fund was paying out 75% of queued requests over 90 days at that time.