
The sprawl of Blackstone—already the world’s largest manager of alternative assets—has reached a new milestone as its AUM tops the $1 trillion mark.
AUM represents a particularly important figure for publicly traded private equity firms and alternatives managers, as more assets beget more management fees, which can boost shareholder distributions.
Credit and insurance investments were a major driver of the firm’s growth over the past 12 months. Blackstone said in its earnings call on Thursday that those strategies rose 11% year-over-year, surpassing PE and real estate, which grew by 7% and 4%, respectively.
The firm’s AUM is roughly double the size of the next-largest US-based firm, KKR.
“There are many advantages that come from our unique scale,” CEO Stephen Schwarzman said. “With our portfolio of over 230 companies, 12,000 real estate assets and one of the largest lending businesses in the world, we believe that we have more information than just about anyone competing with us.”
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