Blackstone Strikes Optimistic Private Markets Tone With Q1 Results

Editorial Staff

27 April 2026

US-listed , which is a major player in the private markets space and something of a bellwether for its health, said late last week that net attributable income rose to $649.7 million in the first three months of 2026, up from $614 million a year earlier. Management and advisory fees rose; total revenues rose to $3.62 billion from $3.29 billion a year earlier.

Like some of its peers, the firm has built a private wealth offering to tap demand from private banks, wealth managers and family offices. Blackstone said private wealth assets under management rose 14 pr cent year-over-year to $310 billion, marking nearly a threefold increase over the past five years. First quarter sales on the private wealth platform were $10 billion, with strong product-level performance led by BXPE.

“Our private wealth platform continued to shine in Q1. Looking forward, we remain very optimistic about our prospects in the vast and underpenetrated private wealth channel. Our innovation is accelerating, and we have a multitude of products in the pipeline…Meanwhile, we’re seeing positive developments in the defined contribution channel, with the regulatory rule-making process well underway. Overall, there is huge runway before us in private wealth,” Jon Gray, Blackstone’s COO and president, said.

In recent weeks, there have been heavy redemptions – pegged by some (Business Insider, 23 April, and others) at almost $20 billion from private credit funds for wealthy individuals. In a conference call on the figures last week, Blackstone’s CEO Steve Schwartzman was quoted as saying that the firm is "navigating an intensely negative campaign against the private credit sector," and that we should "separate the fact from the fiction."

In its statement, Schwartzman said of the results in general: “Blackstone delivered outstanding first quarter results despite the turbulent environment, highlighted by almost $70 billion of inflows and positive appreciation across nearly all of our flagship strategies. Our all-weather model protects us in these times of disruption while also allowing us to invest where we see the greatest opportunity.”

In its details on private credit and insurance, Blackstone said total AuM in this area rose 18 per cent year-on-year in Q1 to $457.5 billion, with inflows of $37 billion in the quarter. Those inflows in Q1 included $17.3 billion for the global direct lending strategy. The fifth opportunistic private credit strategy held its final close and hit its hard cap with inflows of $2.0 billion in the quarter, bringing total investable capital to over $10.0 billion.