Blackstone is on the cusp of surpassing $1tn in assets under management, a milestone that analysts predict will arrive as soon as Thursday when the private equity giant reports second-quarter earnings.
It should be a moment of unabashed celebration for the 38-year-old buyout giant, but it is one that risks being undermined by mounting pressures associated with amassing hundreds of billions of dollars in assets during an era of rock-bottom interest rates.
Those pressures burst into the open late last year in an episode that caught co-founder Stephen Schwarzman and his heir apparent Jonathan Gray off guard after investors started to yank money from the New York investment group’s flagship $70bn property fund.