Blackstone announces $10.6B close of European real estate drawdown fund

Blackstone (BX) announced the final close of its latest European real estate fund, Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe VII. The fund has raised EUR 9.8B or $10.6B, of total capital commitments, making it the largest European real estate drawdown fund ever raised based on third party capital commitment, Blackstone said. In total, Blackstone’s three opportunistic strategies have nearly $47B of available capital. With scale capital available globally, including in Europe through BREP Europe VII, the company said it believes Blackstone’s real estate funds are well positioned to capitalize on an opportunity-rich environment. James Seppala, Head of European Real Estate, Blackstone, said: “We are extremely proud to have raised Europe’s largest real estate drawdown fund ever during what has been a period of exceptional dislocation in the industry, particularly in Europe. The real estate recovery is coming into view and we are grateful that our limited partners have entrusted us with substantial capital to seek to capture opportunities through our time-tested, high conviction investment process.”