US private equity giant Blackstone has hit the final close of its third and largest Asia fund on $13.1 billion, according to an announcement on Tuesday.
BCP Asia III was oversubscribed, signaling growing interest among LPs seeking high-growth markets to diversify their portfolios.
“Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region in the world, presenting compelling opportunities to invest at scale behind our high-conviction themes and deliver for our investors,” said Joe Baratta, global head of Blackstone Private Equity Strategies.
According to PitchBook data, BCP Asia III’s LPs include Canadian pension fund CPP Investments, Minnesota State Board of Investment, and the Houston Firefighters’ Relief and Retirement Fund.
The previous two iterations of Blackstone’s Asian fund vehicles closed on $6.8 billion in 2021 and $2.4 billion in 2017.
Some 15 exits were realized from Blackstone’s Asia portfolio in the past two years, including the Indian IPOs of International Gemological Institute and Aadhar Housing Finance, and the acquisition of Alinamin Pharmaceutical by North Asian buyout fund MBK Partners.
The US buyout firm has also invested more than $7 billion in 12 deals in India and Japan over the same period, such as Mumbai-based AI cloud platform developer Neysa and Japanese specialized engineering services provider TechnoPro.
Blackstone has offices across eight cities in the Asia Pacific, including Tokyo, Mumbai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Sydney. In the past two years, the PE investor says it has almost doubled its Asian headcount to tap growing opportunities in these markets.
It also sees huge potential in bringing private markets to individual investors, Blackstone’s Asian head of private wealth Ed Huang told Bloomberg.
Several global PE and buyout majors have secured record fund vehicles for Asia in recent months.
Bain Capital closed $10.5 billion for its Asia Fund VI in May, while Sweden’s EQT closed its BPEA Private Equity Fund IX on $15.6 billion in April. KKR is also said to be closing Asian Fund V above $15 billion.
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