Global private equity major Blackstone has announced raising a record $7.1 billion for its new energy transition credit fund, Blackstone Green Private Credit Fund III (BGREEN III).
The fund, which Blackstone said is the largest energy transition private credit vehicle ever raised, focuses on providing private credit to the renewable energy, infrastructure, and energy transition marketplace.
BGREEN III will be managed by Blackstone Credit’s Sustainable Resources Platform. The close aligns with Blackstone’s previous announcement that it sees an opportunity to invest an estimated $100 billion in energy transition and climate change solutions projects over the next decade across its businesses.
“Blackstone has built a premier platform focused on private credit in the energy transition and infrastructure markets,” said Blackstone Credit’s global head Dwight Scott.
Blackstone Credit, the fund manager, is one of the world’s largest credit-focused asset managers. Its Credit and Insurance segment has $295 billion in assets under management, according to the announcement.
A report from research firm BloombergNEF said global investment in the low-carbon energy transition totaled $1.1 trillion in 2022, a new record and a huge acceleration from the year before. The report also expects acceleration to low-carbon energy transition to continue this year.
“The energy transition is impacting large sectors of the economy and is resulting in a growing need for efficient private capital,” said Robert Horn, global head of the Sustainable Resources Group for Blackstone Credit.
Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. Its $1 trillion in assets under management include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, private and liquid credit, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, public securities and secondary funds, all on a global basis.
Last month, the firm reported that its second-quarter distributable earnings dropped nearly 40% due to a sharp slump in assets sales mostly from its real estate and credit businesses.
However, its private equity business saw a 20% growth in performance fees, driven by the secondary share sales of Blackstone’s stake in London Stock Exchange Group and Gates Industrial Corporation.
In April, Blackstone secured $8.2 billion in capital commitments for the third vehicle in its Asian opportunistic real estate fund series – Blackstone Real Estate Partners Asia III (BREP ASIA III)