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☆ No degree? No problem. Inside Blackstone's ambitious plans to internally grow talent for its data centers and other portfolio companies
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-30 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

It's launched an internal Data Center Academy to find and train candidates to fill the specialized technical positions that can be tricky to hire for. QTS's talent programs have led to 100 new, trained hires, or 8% of the company's total size. Here's how Blackstone's Career Pathways program is helping the firm solve its data center talent problem. So far, the firm has placed five Data Center Academy cohorts in eleven markets. Dawon said the Data Center Academy taught him both hard and soft skills, such as public speaking and the ability to navigate a corporate environment.

Persons: Blackstone, Dawon, —, Steve Schwarzman, It's, Blackstone's, Joe Baratta, Marcus Felder, Felder, it's, Jon Gray, QTS, they've, Kimberly Hines, Alhaji Dawon, hadn't Organizations: Service, Uptime Institute, Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, Blackstone Property Partners, Data Center Academy, Manhattan, Blackstone Investing, Blackstone, Business, Department of Defense, cybersecurity, QTS Locations: QTS, cybersecurity

☆ Blackstone is doubling down on its efforts to woo the wealthy with 2 new funds, flying in the face of BREIT critics
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-18 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

AdvertisementBCRED, the firm's first credit fund for individual investors, raised $3.4 billion in this quarter, more than the $1.4 billion raised by BXPE and the $990 million raised by BREIT. AdvertisementSchwarzman combined his analysis of BREIT's success with a rosier picture of the larger macro environment in real estate. Since calling the bottom of the real estate market at the beginning of the year, Blackstone's confidence that inflation is receding has continued to increase, leading to more deployment of capital into real estate. It's also providing more possibilities to exit and realize returns on its real estate assets. The firm, which is deploying nearly $15 billion into real estate this year, according to Gray, sees sunny days ahead.

Persons: —, Steve Schwarzman, Jon Gray, Gray, Blackstone, prorated redemptions, we've, BXPE, prorating, Schwarzman, BREIT, REITs, It's Organizations: Service, Business, Blackstone Infrastructure Partners

☆ Why the biggest real estate funds still struggle
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-17 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Read previewBlackstone, the world's largest landlord, contends the worst is over for commercial real estate. In the first quarter, shareholders in Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, or BREIT, its $59 billion flagship real estate investment fund, pulled out almost a billion dollars a month on average, according to the company's first-quarter earnings statement. A similar investment fund operated by Barry Sternlicht's Starwood Capital has had an even greater retreat by investors. Share pricing is determined through appraisals of the value of the underlying real estate holdings. In May, Blackstone Real Estate Partners X also completed the $3.5 billion acquisition of Tricon Residential, an owner of single family rental homes.

Persons: —, Barry Sternlicht's, Kevin Gannon, BREIT, reinvigorating, anemic, REITs, Jonathan Gray, Blackstone Heidi Gutman, NBCUniversal, Jon Gray, they're, Gray, outperformance, redemptions, Blackstone, Gannon, They're, Sternlicht, Todd Henderson, REIT, Henderson, It'll Organizations: Service, Investors, Income Trust, Business, Barry Sternlicht's Starwood Capital, Starwood Real, Blackstone, Starwood, KKR, Apollo, Federal Reserve, Communities, Blackstone Real Estate Partners, Tricon Locations: Blackstone, Brookfield, BREIT, Tricon, Nashville, DWS

☆ Inside the Growing Alarm Over Blackstone's BREIT Real-Estate Fund
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-07 | by ( Bethany Mclean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +23 min

Investors in Blackstone's real-estate fund asked for their money back in droves — more than $15 billion to date. Unless the real-estate market comes roaring back, analysts warn, BREIT could end up shrinking to a fraction of its current size, leaving the fund's investors holding the bag. Only 3% of BREIT's holdings are in office buildings, which have been ground zero for commercial real estate pain. Advertisement"Not all real estate is created equal," BREIT boasted in a recent letter to stockholders, "and where you invest matters." "Commercial real estate is a slow burn," Brian Moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America, recently observed.

Persons: Blackstone, —, BREIT, REITs, Steve Schwarzman, Jeenah, Nate Koppikar, Craig McCann, BREIT's, Chilton, McCann, McCann, Horacio Villalobos, That's, Donald Trump, Robert Chang, Schwarzman, Michael Blackshire, Phil Bak, Stephen Schwarzman, Shannon Stapleton, Brian Moynihan, it's, It's Organizations: BREIT, Orso Partners, Securities Exchange Commission, Blackstone, SEC, Chilton Capital Management, SLCG Economics Consulting, Publicly, University of California, Regents, Armada Investors, Reuters, Bank of America Locations: BREIT, Lisbon, Fideres

☆ Apple wants to give the iPad a boost
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-07 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The tech giant's event will reportedly showcase a new family of… iPads and iPad accessories. But Apple's event , which kicks off at 10 a.m. EST, is looking to give the iPad a boost. iPhone sales have noticeably dipped, which is why you're hearing Apple tout its "services" business , writes BI's Peter Kafka. And the new product Apple wants you to be excited about — the Vision Pro — hasn't lived up to the hype. a16z joins the Big Tech "fake work" debate.

Persons: —, Tyler Le, they're, iPads, Antonio Villas, Boas, BI's Peter Kafka, Peter, hasn't, Katie Notopoulos, Wall, Lauren DeCicca, Tim Cook, Katie, aren't, I'd, we'll, I'm, Alyssa Powell, Danielle DiMartino Booth, James Devaney, Roger Kisby, Jack Dorsey's, Elon, Dorsey, Elon Musk, Satya Nadella, OpenAI, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, a16z, Emily Sundberg, Andreessen Horowitz, David Ulevitch, Vladimir Putin, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, George Glover Organizations: Service, Business, Apple, Google, Getty, US Treasury, National Bureau of Economic Research, Images, Penske Media, Microsoft, Tech, Paramount, Berkshire, Big Tech, Walt Disney Company Locations: BREIT, New York, London

☆ Blackstone's data center gamble
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Daniel Geiger | Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

The firm has recently touted its data center investments amid the artificial intelligence boom. Blackstone's push into data centers comes with its own set of challenges and questions. "You might not own apartment buildings in 10 years, but the largest data center company in the world." Meghji said in the company's video that interest from data center users in QTS data centers had doubled "since ChatGPT came out." Gerber said he had recently discussed data center investments with Blackstone representatives and has confidence in the strategy.

Persons: Blackstone, —, Glenn Schorr, Schorr, outflows, Stephen Tuckwood, Tuckwood, Jonathan Gray, Gray, Jeenah, Chad Williams, BREIT, they're, Patrick Davitt, QTS, Nadeem Meghji, Meghji, ChatGPT, Matthew Barakat, Prince William County, redemptions, Selwyn Gerber, Gerber, Matt Malone Organizations: Blackstone, Income Trust, QTS Realty Trust, Evercore, Wealth Management, Reuters, Autonomous Research, Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, McKinsey, AP, Starwood, MSCI's, Los, RVW, Opto Investments, FS Investments Locations: California, BREIT, QTS, Americas, CBRE, Manassas , Virginia, Prince William, Virginia, Brookfield, Los Angeles, Bellagio, Las Vegas

☆ Blackstone is in talks to help regional banks with lending
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - Blackstone Inc (BX.N), the biggest manager of private equity and real estate assets, said on Thursday it was discussing partnerships with U.S. regional banks to help them with constraints in areas such as car loans and home improvement financing. "As regional banks experienced outflows of deposits, we are seeing real-time opportunities to partner with them at scale," Blackstone President Jonathan Gray said on the firm's first-quarter earnings call. "The regional banks generally play a very large role in home improvement loans, auto loans and equipment finance. He did not identify the banks Blackstone is speaking to. The firm has shifted its focus in real estate to resilient sectors such as logistics and rental housing.

Blackstone has been exercising its right to block investor withdrawals from BREIT since November last year after requests exceeded a preset 5% of the net asset value of the fund. BREIT fulfilled withdrawal requests of $666 million in March, representing only 15% of the $4.5 billion in total redemption requests for the month, the firm said in a letter to investors. Total redemption requests for March were 15% higher than the approximately $3.9 billion demanded by investors in February but 16% lower than the $5.3 billion Blackstone received in January. The level of withdrawal requests is expected to normalize over time as Blackstone works through its backlog, Blackstone President Jonathan Gray said during an analyst earnings call in January. Blackstone shares were down 3.7% to $84.6 per share, in line with the broader market, which was also trading lower.

☆ Blackstone REIT blocks investor withdrawals in January
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Chibuike Oguh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The fulfilled withdrawal requests also represents 2% of the net asset value of fund, the firm said. Blackstone began exercising its right to block investor withdrawals from BREIT from November last year after it received a deluge of requests that exceeded a preset 5% of the net asset value of the fund. Shares of Blackstone were down 2.4% to $93.59 in early afternoon trading on Wednesday. Last month, Blackstone announced that the University of California would invest $4 billion in BREIT shares after the firm committed $1 billion to backstop the university's returns in the fund. The university later increased its investment by another $500 million, bringing the total value of its BREIT shares to $4.5 billion.

☆ Blackstone is stepping up evictions of hundreds of tenants across the US as a top exec vows 'cash-flow growth'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Robert Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

It's back to business as usual: An exec said he had confidence in the firm's "cash-flow growth." About one-fifth of those holdings are tied up in an investment vehicle known as the Blackstone Real Estate Investment Trust, or BREIT. Blackstone's real-estate portfolio is outperforming competitorsThe news of Blackstone's increasing eviction efforts came days after the company announced its fourth-quarter earnings. For example, what Blackstone calls its "opportunistic" real-estate portfolio appreciated by more than 7% during 2022 in one of the most challenging markets in recent memory. The firm's core real-estate portfolio gained more than 10% in value during 2022.

☆ 2023 is 'a generational buying opportunity' for real estate investing, says the CEO of a private equity firm. He shares which sectors offer the best returns and the REITs to buy.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

For real estate, he recommends investing in REITs that are managed by major financial firms. The real estate market last year took a massive hit as interest rates increased at an unprecedented velocity due to the Federal Reserve's aggressive tightening. Ari Rastegar, the founder and CEO of Rastegar Property Company, says just looking at macroeconomic trends won't give investors the full picture. Real estate investment trusts, which are entities that own and operate income-producing properties, are on clearance, he said. He recommends looking at the Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT) and the Starwood Real Estate Income Trust (SREIT).

☆ The University of California invested $4 billion with Blackstone to buy up rental apartments and student housing, which they see as the bright spots in the real estate market this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Robert Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The University of California is investing $4 billion with Blackstone to acquire rentals and student housing. The investment comes at a crucial time for Blackstone's Real Estate Income Trust Inc. fund — also known as BREIT— a $68 billion property investment vehicle. "We consider BREIT to be one of the best positioned, large-scale real estate portfolios in the US, managed by one of the world's top real estate investors," said Jagdeep Singh Bachher, the University of California's chief investment officer. The University of California's investment could become a model for other universities with large endowment funds — typically in the billions of dollars — that want to invest in real estate investment trusts or commercial real estate assets. BREIT's portfolio includes assets in popular college towns such as Fort Collins, Colorado, where Colorado State University is located, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which is home to Louisiana State University, according to the fund's website.

☆ Blackstone gets a slap from efficient markets
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Jonathan Guilford | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

NEW YORK, Dec 8 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Private markets seemed, for a while, the perfect antidote to the weirdness of public markets. Those models typically move much more slowly than the rapidly changing prices served up by public markets. These charms became much more potent during the stresses of Covid-19, when it became clear that public markets are not always a ruthlessly efficient price-discovery mechanism. RESILIENCE OR INTRANSIGENCECovid briefly scrambled the world, but bigger changes are coming that may scramble the calculus for private markets. During Covid, public markets seemed backward-looking, overreacting to the present moment while private markets were able to focus on the future.

☆ Blackstone to sell stake in MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay to VICI Properties
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 1 (Reuters) - Blackstone Inc (BX.N) will sell its 49.9% stake in the joint venture that owns the MGM Grand Las Vegas and Mandalay Bay resorts to co-owner VICI Properties Inc (VICI.N) for about $1.27 billion in cash, the companies said on Thursday. The deal includes the assumption of Blackstone Real Estate Investment Trust's (BREIT) existing property-level debt that has a principal balance of $3 billion. The company had been ramping up investments in the real estate sector until earlier this year. In July, the company drew commitments worth $24.1 billion for its latest real estate fund. VICI Properties, which owns properties such as the Caesars Palace Las Vegas, MGM Grand and the Venetian Resort Las Vegas, expects the deal to be immediately add to adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) per share upon closing.

☆ Blackstone draws a rare 'sell' rating from Wall Street as an analyst raises concerns over 2 high-profile funds
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | Casey Sullivan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

In a rare move for Blackstone, an analyst downgraded the firm's stock rating to "underperform." Blackstone, which has expanded funds aimed at retail investors, said performance is strong. Blackstone shares fell on Tuesday after a Wall Street analyst outlined a grim picture for two of the private-equity and real-estate giant's most prized funds. Credit Suisse research analyst Bill Katz assigned an "underperform" rating to Blackstone. It's a rare negative rating on the firm, which tends to draw cheers from Wall Street analysts who are bullish on Blackstone's position as the largest private-equity investor.

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