Blackstone Group is preparing to significantly increase its investments across Europe as the private capital group bets economic reforms will revive growth after years of US outperformance.

Stephen Schwarzman, co-founder of the $1.2tn-in-assets investment group, told the Financial Times in an interview that Blackstone was planning to invest “at least $500bn” in Europe in the coming decade, as it spots opportunities to become a major lender to companies across the continent and strike large infrastructure and private equity takeovers.

“We are seeing signs of change now in Europe,” said Schwarzman. “European leaders are generally becoming more sensitive to the fact that their growth rates over the past decade have been quite low and it’s not sustainable for them. So they are looking at putting pressure on the European Union regarding deregulation. We think Europe has the prospect of doing better than they had in the past.”