Kirk Falconer

The credit fund and a similarly-focused equity fund are both expected to close in 2023, suggesting Blackstone may soon have as much as $13bn of dedicated capital for near-term energy transition investing.

'We’re spending a lot of time with institutions we’ve never spent time with before', co-CEO Scott Nuttall said in a Q3 earnings call.

The firm secured $14.2bn in fresh capital in the third quarter, bringing amounts raised since January to more than $44bn.

Rising rates – reinforced this week by the Federal Reserve’s vow to continue battling inflation – are motivating LPs to explore asset classes that provide some measure of refuge. One of the beneficiaries appears to be private debt.

Antares’ Fund II is the latest of several new direct lending products to hit the market, all seemingly aimed at growing LP demand for private credit in a rising-rate environment.

'It is getting harder out there,' president and COO Jonathan Gray said in the firm’s second-quarter 2022 earnings call in reply to a question about fundraising trends.

Fortress Lending Fund III has so far collected nearly $1.3bn and is expected to wrap up later this year.

Sixth Street created the strategy in response to demand from borrowers and private equity sponsors to bring more capital into the “underserved” large-deal market, sources told Buyouts.

'We should be everywhere first,' Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone’s CEO, said at the Bernstein 38th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference.

Distress opportunities could open up in the months ahead as inflation, rate hikes and geopolitical disturbances – above all, the war in Ukraine – create more economic uncertainty.