Blackstone: First Close Of Evergreen Institutional U.S. Direct Lending Fund With $22 Billion of Investable Capital

By Amit Chowdhry • Nov 8, 2024

Blackstone announced the final closing of the first series of its evergreen institutional U.S. direct lending fund Blackstone Senior Direct Lending Fund (BXD). And Blackstone has closed on approximately $22 billion of investable capital for the inaugural series of BXD and related vehicles, including anticipated leverage, exceeding the $10 billion target. This brings Blackstone’s global direct lending platform to over $123 billion in assets under management as of the third quarter.

BXCI has deployed or committed $40 billion in direct lending through the third quarter, more than double the total for all of last year. And this includes lead roles in some of the largest deals of the year with CoreWeave ($7.5 billion), Squarespace ($2.7 billion), Fidelis ($2 billion), and Davies (£1.5 billion), and recent proprietary middle-market transactions for Permira’s Acuity Knowledge Partners ($600 million), Graham Partners’ Gatekeeper Systems ($550 million), and publicly listed Loar ($360 million), where BXCI served as the sole lender.

KEY QUOTES:

“This capital raise reflects our long-term strength in private credit, our global reach across corporates and sponsor-led transactions, and our ability to add value to the companies with which we partner. We believe our scale and breadth of solutions position us extremely well during what we expect to be an active transaction environment with declining rates.”

– Brad Marshall, Global Head of Private Credit Strategies at Blackstone Credit & Insurance (BXCI)

“Our global platform gives us strength in both the traditional middle-market and growing opportunity set for larger deals available to few others. Investors and borrowers continue to recognize the benefits that private capital can provide in direct lending and across the broader credit markets.”

– Gilles Dellaert, Global Head of BXCI