Blackstone Group on Wednesday reported $618.6 billion in assets under management as of Dec. 31, up 6% from three months earlier and up 8% from a year earlier.
During an investor call, also on Wednesday, Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman, CEO and co-founder, said that despite a challenging year, Blackstone had $32.3 billion of inflows in the quarter and $95 billion in the year ended Dec. 31.
At the same time, Blackstone invested $25.4 billion in the quarter and $61.7 billion in the year.
During Wednesday's call, Jonathan Gray, Blackstone president and chief operating officer, discussed Blackstone's acquisition of Allstate Corp.'s life insurance business, Allstate Life Insurance Co., for $2.8 billion that was announced Tuesday evening. Allstate Life Insurance Co. holds about 80% (or $23 billion) of Allstate's life and annuity reserves and generated net income of $467 million in 2019 and a net loss of $23 million in the first nine months of 2020, according to an Allstate news release.
The transaction price included less than $2 billion in equity, as well as flows related to the transaction and some debt, Mr. Gray said. Blackstone's insurance team will act as asset manager, he said.
Mr. Gray also discussed Blackstone's fundraising during the quarter and year, noting that much of the capital raised was in new dedicated strategies such as life sciences and Blackstone's second Asia buyout fund.
In response to a question, Mr. Gray said Blackstone's expansion into new areas would not "crowd out" deployment opportunities for its larger, flagship funds because the mandates are different. For example, Blackstone's inaugural life sciences fund, the $4.6 billion Blackstone Life Sciences V that closed in July, would invest in drugs waiting for FDA approval and in which its buyout fund wouldn't invest, he said.
Blackstone's private equity AUM was $197.5 billion as of Dec. 31, up 5.5% from Sept. 30 and up 8% from Dec. 31, 2019.
Real estate assets were $187.2 billion as of Dec. 31, up 7.7% from three months earlier and up 14.7% from 12 months earlier.
Credit and insurance had $154.4 billion as of Dec. 31, an 7.5% increase from Sept. 30 and a 7% rise from Dec. 31, 2019.
Hedge funds AUM was $79.4 billion as of Dec. 31, up 2.1% from three months earlier but down 1.6% from a year earlier.
Perpetual capital, an increasing focus for Blackstone, grew to $134.9 billion in AUM, up 30% year-over-year.
GAAP net income was $1.8 billion for the quarter and $2.3 billion for the year. By comparison, GAAP net income was $978 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 and $3.9 billion for all of 2019.
