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Blackstone Says Revenue, Income Up Due to Strong CRE Tailwinds
The private equity giant — now with $1.1 trillion in assets under management — poured $25 billion into commercial real estate in 2024
By Brian Pascus January 30, 2025 12:11 pm
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Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman and the Blackstone logo. PHOTOS: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images; Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
The Blackstone train continues to power through the highest reaches of American finance, and it’s being fueled by commercial real estate.
During a fourth-quarter earnings call Thursday, Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone (BX)’s chairman and CEO, announced that his private equity juggernaut “just reported one of the best quarters in our history,” as income, revenue and distributable earnings all shattered comparables from 12 months earlier. SEE ALSO: LoanCore Supplies $22M Credit Facility for Recap of 183 MadisonBlackstone reported net income of $5.4 billion in 2024, up from $2.4 billion in 2023. The firm ended the year strong with $1.3 billion in fourth-quarter net income, far exceeding the $109 million it reported to end the fourth quarter of 2023.
The firm announced that total revenue hit $13 billion in 2024, up from $8 billion in 2023, as fourth-quarter revenues reached $3 billion, more than double the $1.2 billion revenue total from the same time the year before. Moreover, distributable earnings — profits delivered to shareholders — reached $2.1 billion in the fourth quarter, up 56 percent from the $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023.
As shareholders have reaped rewards, investors have clambered to jump aboard the Blackstone bus.
“We raised $28 billion in private wealth in 2024, including $23 billion in the perpetual strategies, nearly double — let me repeat, nearly double — what we raised from individuals in these strategies in the prior year,” said Schwarzman. “All signs point to further acceleration in 2025.”
Blackstone’s assets under management (AUM) now stand at $1.1 trillion, having crossed the $1 trillion threshold in July 2023.
Jonathan Gray, president and chief operating officer, called it “an outstanding quarter for Blackstone,” and noted that the firm deployed $134 billion in capital in 2024, an 81 percent increase year-over-year, with the firm investing a whopping $62 billion across its verticals in the fourth quarter alone, making it the firm’s most active quarter since mid-2022.
“The combination of a healthy U.S, economy, historically tighter financing spreads, greater debt availability, the prospect of a more business-friendly regulatory climate, and accelerating technological innovation have given us confidence to deploy ca