Blackstone, eyeing private credit, combines units in hopes of $1T business

Blackstone (NYSE: BX) this week unveiled its Blackstone Credit and Insurance (BXCI) unit, as it aims to build another trillion-dollar business over the next 10 years by combining the firm’s corporate credit, asset-based finance and insurance groups into a single unit.

According to Blackstone, credit and insurance are the fastest growing areas for the behemoth asset manager, currently totaling $295 billion in AUM.

“We see the opportunity for BXCI, along with Real Estate Credit, to reach $1 trillion in the next ten years,” said co-founder, chairman and CEO Stephen Schwarzman.

Gilles Dellaert, who is the global head of Blackstone Insurance, will serve as the global head of BXCI, responsible for leading operations.

Dwight Scott, the global head of Blackstone Credit, will serve as chairman of BXCI, focused on client relationships and expanding the European platform, among other responsibilities.

The business will include BCRED, Blackstone’s flagship private credit fund with over $50 billion in AUM, and its $7.1 billion energy transition credit fund BGREEN, as well as the CLOs, senior loans and insurance assets that the firm manages.

Scott pointed to private credit as an essential part of the new unit.

“We believe we are still in the early innings of a megatrend in private credit,” Scott said in a press release. “Particularly in today’s elevated base rate environment — and given the senior-secured structure of many of our products — we believe it is currently the best risk-adjusted environment for this asset class in decades.”

Heads of businesses taking on expanded roles in the group include global CIO Michael Zawadzki, global head of private credit Brad Marshall, global head of sustainable and structured credit Rob Horn, global head of asset-based finance Robert Camacho and global head of liquid credit strategies Robert Zable.

Operational leaders include co-COO Heather von Zuben, co-COO Ida Hoghooghi, CFO Will Skinner and global head of credit institutional client solutions Beth Chartoff.

In August, Morningstar said that Blackstone was the first alternative asset manager to garner $1 trillion in total assets under management.

This article originally appeared on PitchBook News