Blackstone Gets Green Light for New Private Credit Fund, Raises $8 Billion for Real Estate Debt Fund

Blackstone is having all the fun(ds).

On Monday, the alternative investment giant got the green light from the Securities and Exchange Commission to roll out a new private credit fund, the latest effort to give retail traders more access to a sector dominated by institutional investors. It came three days after the firm said it raised $8 billion in its latest real estate debt fund to capitalize on a property market rebound.

Fun(ds) With Intervals

Private credit is a $2 trillion global market that remains mostly in the hands of big, institutional investors. It exploded in the shadow of the 2008 recession, after humbled banks retreated from making risky loans, creating a vacuum for alternative lenders to step in. 

Blackstone’s new Private Multi-Asset Credit and Income Fund — which will be active in North America, Europe and Australia — is one of several efforts aimed at cracking the private credit door open to retail investors as a way of easing a tough fundraising environment. Scheduled to be available for purchase in the second quarter, it is a so-called interval fund, an increasingly popular vehicle to draw individuals into the private credit market:

• Interval funds are required to offer to repurchase their shares from holders only periodically, making them semi-liquid in nature. A record 43 registered last year, and interval funds oversaw $85 billion in assets as of late 2024, up from roughly $25 billion in 2020.
• Blackstone said its new fund, which will be traded under the ticker BMACX, “will invest across private corporate credit, asset-based and real estate credit, structured credit and liquid credit.” That’s not dissimilar from plans at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, which last month filed with the SEC to launch its first interval fund, with a focus on private credit and plans to “invest in an actively managed portfolio of credit investments, including but not limited to loans, bonds, other credit instruments.”

Property Matters: Last week, Blackstone closed on a record-tying $8 billion commercial real-estate debt fund after two years of fundraising, The Wall Street Journal said. It’s another case where the firm, which beat expectations last week when it announced $12.7 billion in revenue, up 65% year-over-year, has capitalized on the retreat of banks in the wake of the 2008 crisis. Traditional banks became more cautious about real estate deals, allowing non-bank lenders to expand their role in financing, especially as higher interest rates have made refinancing challenging for commercial property owners.