Blackstone Group raises funds to take advantage of weak real-estate market

Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE: BX), one of the world's largest private equity firms, has taken a record $10.9 billion loan to take advantage of the situation on the real-estate market.

Photo: Blackstone Group raises funds to take advantage of weak real-estate market

The provider of private equity, financial advisory, and investment management services is going to invest this money in property as the U.S. housing slump pushes prices get lower.

Blackstone goes on with real-estate investing as the market for corporate buyouts remains all but frozen. Its real-estate funds have delivered an average annual return of 31 percent after fees since 1992.

In recent years Blackstone has made significant investments in the hotel and commercial real estate industries by buying and taking private seven large publicly-traded firms. The biggest acquisition in history was the takeover of billionaire Sam Zell's Equity Office Properties Trust, for approximately $39 billion. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and a few others acted as financial advisors to Blackstone in the deal.

Prior to the takeover Equity Office was the nation’s largest publicly held office building owner and manager. Its total office portfolio consisted of whole or partial interests in 580 buildings comprising 108,600,000 square feet (10,090,000 m²) in 16 states and the District of Columbia.

Photo: weblogs.jomc.unc.edu