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Blackstone Group - Fund of Funds and Secondary
Stephen Schwarzman's Blackstone Strategic Partners is the largest private-equity secondaries buyer, deploying over $70B across LP stakes and GP-led deals.
Blackstone Group - Fund of Funds and Secondary
Blackstone's Strategic Partners (SP) business originated from its acquisition of Swiss alternative-asset manager Quellos Group in 2007, which brought a team led by Stephen Can into the firm. That team retained its distinct operating culture while gaining access to Blackstone's institutional relationships and data advantages. Strategic Partners has since grown into the dominant buyer of private-equity LP stakes, closing Fund VIII at $22.2 billion in 2021 — then the largest secondaries fund ever raised — and succeeding it with Fund IX targeting $22 billion in 2023. The group pursues a three-pronged strategy: acquiring limited-partner interests in seasoned private-equity, real-estate, and infrastructure funds; providing GP-led liquidity solutions such as continuation vehicles; and making primary commitments to new funds raised by third-party managers. The platform's activity spans North America, Europe, and Asia, with transaction sizes ranging from single-interest LP sales below $100 million to multibillion-dollar GP-led restructurings. Deals sourced from the firm's primary fund-commitment program provide an informational edge, as the team has already underwritten many of the managers whose LP stakes it later acquires. Recent GP-led deals include the $2.6 billion continuation vehicle for Investindustrial's VII fund in June 2023 and a $1.1 billion strip-sale facility for BC Partners' Fund XI in early 2024 (per Secondaries Investor, June 2023 and February 2024). The group also runs a dedicated real-estate secondaries program and an infrastructure secondaries effort, extending the model beyond private equity. Blackstone's secondaries team operates from New York and London alongside the broader Strategic Partners primary fund-investment and co-investment groups. The unit functions within Blackstone's $1 trillion-plus asset-management ecosystem but maintains its own investment committee and independent decision-making on secondary-pricing and GP-led transactions. In May 2024, Strategic Partners reportedly held a $2.5 billion first close on its ninth flagship secondaries fund, placing it on track toward its $22 billion target (per Buyouts Insider, May 2024). The group also participates in preferred-equity financings for general partners, including a $500 million structured investment in Clearlake Capital in 2022. Strategic Partners' structural advantage lies in its dual identity: it acts as a fiduciary LP committing to hundreds of external funds while simultaneously serving as the largest liquidity provider to those same fund investors. That dual role creates a proprietary origination pipeline — seller LPs approach the team precisely because Blackstone already underwrites their GP relationships through the primary program. No other secondaries buyer combines that scale of primary due-diligence capacity with a balance sheet capable of executing eight-figure single-ticket deals and multibillion-dollar GP-led restructurings without relying heavily on syndication. This architecture — a dedicated secondaries team inside a mega-allocator — makes Strategic Partners the structural benchmark against which dedicated secondaries firms are measured.
General information
Firm type
Generalist
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
New York
Corporate office
New York, NY, United States
Principals
Stephen A. Schwarzman
Chairman, CEO & Co-Founder
Jonathan D. Gray
President & Chief Operating Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
How does Blackstone's secondaries group source proprietary deal flow?
Strategic Partners benefits from the primary fund-commitment program it operates in parallel, which commits capital to hundreds of private-equity, real-estate, and infrastructure funds annually. Because the team has already underwritten the GP relationships for primary commitments, it often receives inbound interest from LPs seeking exit liquidity in those same funds. The group also originates GP-led transactions through its direct relationships with general partners across the Blackstone ecosystem, giving it early visibility into restructuring opportunities.
Is Strategic Partners a standalone firm or integrated into Blackstone?
Strategic Partners operates as a dedicated group within Blackstone, maintaining its own investment committee and independent pricing authority on secondary transactions. The team was formed through the 2007 acquisition of Quellos Group and retained its separate brand and operating approach while gaining access to Blackstone's institutional infrastructure, data resources, and LP relationships. The group's investment decisions are not reviewed by Blackstone's direct-investment private-equity team.
What types of secondaries transactions does the group execute?
The group conducts LP-led transactions, purchasing seasoned limited-partner interests in private-equity, real-estate, and infrastructure funds; GP-led transactions, including continuation vehicles and tender offers; primary fund commitments to third-party managers; and structured preferred-equity financings to general partners. Transaction values range from sub-$100 million single-interest LP sales to multibillion-dollar GP-led restructurings.
Who runs investment decisions at Blackstone Strategic Partners?
The group is led by Stephen Can, Verdun Perry, and other senior investment professionals who have been with the team since its Quellos Group origins or who joined shortly after the 2007 acquisition. The group's investment committee operates independently within Blackstone and makes all pricing and commitment decisions for secondary transactions, primary fund commitments, and GP-led deals.
How is Blackstone Strategic Partners different from a dedicated secondaries firm like Lexington Partners?
Unlike dedicated secondaries firms, Strategic Partners is embedded within the world's largest alternative-asset manager, giving it a proprietary informational advantage from Blackstone's primary fund-commitment program. The group can also execute very large GP-led deals without relying heavily on syndication due to Blackstone's balance-sheet capacity. Dedicated secondaries firms lack this dual primary-underwriting and capital-formation scale, though they may have longer-standing independent LP relationships outside the Blackstone network.
Does the secondaries group participate in fund commitments or only direct secondaries?
Strategic Partners actively makes primary commitments to third-party private-equity, real-estate, and infrastructure funds — this is central to its model. The primary program creates a proprietary sourcing channel for secondary transactions because seller LPs approach the team in part because it already evaluates their fund managers. The group has committed to more than 750 external funds since inception.
What investment stages and geographies does the group target?
The group evaluates secondary transactions backed by buyout, growth-equity, venture-capital, real-estate, and infrastructure funds across North America, Europe, and Asia. In LP-led deals, the majority of underlying portfolio-company exposure is typically in mature, post-investment-period assets. GP-led transactions can involve earlier-stage or concentrated portfolios where the general partner seeks to extend its hold period.
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