Blackstone Group LP has raised more than $12 billion for its latest real estate fund, according to a report.
The fund, Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII, is the largest buyout fund by capital targeted globally, has a $13 billion fundraising target and now it's one step closer to achieving that, a report by Reuters noted.
"This sticks out as being a really successful fundraise in a market that has been struggling for the past few years. It does show that investors are very keen on having access to Blackstone" said Preqin spokesman Tim Friedman.
The firm took four years to raise over $16 billion for its last global private equity fund, Blackstone Capital Partners VI, which closed in January. In contrast, Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII launched just over a year ago, in April 2011.
Real estate contributed $1 billion toward Blackstone's reported 2011 economic net income of $1.4 billion, a measure of the firm's profitability. This is despite real estate making up just a quarter of the firm's $166 billion assets under management as of December 31.
Blackstone said in April it now managed over $48 billion in real estate assets, up nearly 40 percent from the prior year.
