Blackstone Seeks More Than $10 Billion In New Asia Buyout Fund

(Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Inc. plans to raise more than $10 billion in its third Asia private equity fund as the firm ramps up deployment in Japan and India, people familiar with the matter said.

The New York-based money manager started marketing the fund in mid-September and plans to have a first closing in January, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is not public. The firm is eyeing a pool on par with the $11 billion it raised in 2022.

The mega fund plan comes on the heels of an aggressive raise by EQT AG, which is in the process of raising $12.5 billion for its next regional fund, in one of the biggest-ever pools of private equity in Asia. As firms seek giant piles of money to put to work in recent years, they have been zeroing in on economies that offer transparency and regulatory certainty while taking a harder look at China’s rising economic and geopolitical risks.

A media representative at Blackstone declined to comment.

Blackstone’s private equity boss Joe Baratta has said that India and Japan are expected to be the most active markets in Asia.

The firm holds about $50 billion worth of private equity investments and real estate in India, and has been active in Japan, Australia and Southeast Asia, Amit Dixit, the firm’s head of private equity for the region, said in an interview earlier this year.

Blackstone and other global asset managers also tout Japan as their next big opportunity, as the country opens its economy to more financial players and the market isn’t as crowded as the US or Europe, President Jon Gray said at a Bloomberg panel discussion with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last month.