Blackstone wants to double assets to $800B

The Blackstone Group wants to double its assets under management to around $800 billion in the coming five years, according to its CEO Stephen Schwarzman.

“We have internal targets, plans, aspirations to basically double where we are,” he told Bloomberg. As of late September, the private equity firm had $387 billion in assets under management, more than double the amount it oversaw five years ago.

Real estate is the company’s largest business line, with $111.3 billion in assets under management.

On a call last week, Blackstone’s president Tony James said he still sees plenty of opportunities in real estate, even if the market has slowed down.

“Real estate is a gargantuan market,” he said during the company’s quarterly earnings media call Thursday. “There are always undermanaged assets.”

The second-biggest U.S. private equity firm, Apollo Global Management, has $232 billion in assets, Bloomberg reported. [Bloomberg] — Konrad Putzier