Thirteen months and one election upset later, Mr. Schwarzman, who leads an elite committee of business executives advising President Trump,
has announced a $20 billion cornerstone investment by the Saudi entity in a soon-to-be-created Blackstone infrastructure fund.
Investments in projects like bridges and roads — either by taking stakes in existing infrastructure or by putting up money to build something new — are, by nature, often longer-term than the corporate buyouts and real estate deals
that are typically associated with private equity firms.
With the $20 billion from the Saudis, an expected $20 billion from other outside investors,
and the possibility of borrowed capital to finance individual projects, Blackstone hopes to generate up to $100 billion in total spending power
Founded in 2006, the company now manages $40 billion and, like Blackstone, recently
announced its own record capital raising, with a new $15.8 billion fund.
Blackstone first sought to do infrastructure investing in 2008, when it raised about $1 billion and hired executives from Macquarie, the Australian bank
that pioneered modern infrastructure investing, to start a new fund.
Big Payoff After Blackstone Courted a Saudi Prince -
By KATE KELLY and LANDON THOMAS Jr. MAY 25, 2017
A little over a year ago, the private equity titan Stephen A. Schwarzman sat down with Mohammed bin Salman, the deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia
and chairman of the kingdom’s largest sovereign wealth fund, in hopes of expanding their relationship.
