Blackstone Is Buying Alaska Permanent Fund Infrastructure Assets -- Update
23 Juli 2020 - 10:58PM
Dow Jones News
By Ted Bunker and Preeti Singh
Blackstone Group Inc. agreed to acquire a nearly $1 billion
infrastructure investment portfolio from Alaska Permanent Fund
Corp., according to a person familiar with the matter. The person
said Blackstone signed the deal a few weeks ago.
Jon Gray, Blackstone's president and chief operating officer,
said during an earnings call Thursday that the firm's Strategic
Partners unit had made a large secondary deal involving
infrastructure assets.
"Several weeks ago, [Strategic Partners] acquired $1 billion in
infrastructure secondary interests, which we believe is the
largest-ever transaction in the sector," Mr. Gray said on the call.
He didn't elaborate or identify the seller.
The transaction was easily the biggest secondary deal involving
infrastructure assets this year through June, a new survey
suggests.
The aggregate value of infrastructure secondary deals came to
$1.44 billion this year through June, according to the survey from
secondary intermediary Setter Capital. The advisory firm that
specializes in secondary transactions said deals involving
infrastructure investments provided a bright spot in the market
during the first half of the year, as the effects of the
coronavirus pandemic hobbled transactions in most other
sectors.
While infrastructure secondary deals declined more than 4% in
this year's first half compared with the same period in 2019, total
secondary transactions plunged about 56% to $20.2 billion,
including $17.46 billion involving private-equity funds, Setter
said. PE deals fell more than 58% during the half.
The survey showed that sovereign funds accounted for just 6.7%
of all secondary transactions. Setter said responses from survey
participants suggest that infrastructure secondary deals will total
about $4.15 billion this year.
The first-half total value of all secondary deals dropped from
the $46 billion recorded in the first six months of last year,
Setter said. It projected all secondary deals would total $58.3
billion this year, including $50.26 billion in private-equity
deals. In 2019, the value of all secondary transactions reached
$85.41 billion, Setter said.
The Alaska fund initially sought to sell private-equity assets
as well, but the buyer wanted to adjust the price following the
March market drop and those interests were pulled out of the deal,
the person said. The terms of the infrastructure portion didn't
change, the person added. It is unclear who the prospective buyer
for the private-equity assets was.
The value of the Blackstone deal approached $1 billion when
unfunded commitments were included, the person said.
Mr. Gray said the $1 billion deal came as Blackstone's Strategic
Partners raised a new $3.8 billion infrastructure-focused
secondaries fund as well as one targeting real estate. By the end
of June, the unit had almost $40 billion in assets under
management, he said.
Write to Ted Bunker at ted.bunker@wsj.com and Preeti Singh at
preeti.singh@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 23, 2020 16:43 ET (20:43 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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