More on BREIT

From Yahoo Finance: BREIT paid out more than $2.8 billion in distributions during 2023, exceeding cash flows of $2.7 billion, according to its annual report. The fund’s performance was hit by investor requests for their money back, which prompted it to sell assets and keep cash in liquid investments. Distributions included both payouts in BREIT stock and those that elect to receive cash.

Blackstone Inc. launched BREIT in 2017 as it looked to branch out to retail investors, quickly building it into a $70 billion giant. But the rapid rise in interest rates spooked investors, leading the fund to restrict redemptions from November 2022 until February of this year when it fully paid out withdrawal requests. The fund’s net asset value had fallen back to about $60.7 billion as of the end of last year...

Full story at https://finance.yahoo.com/news/blackstone-breit-paid-more-generated-081438301.html.

As blog readers will know, UC invested in $4.5 billion in BREIT in return for a high return "guarantee" as a kind of bailout as the fund was being drained by withdrawal requests. As we noted, the Regents' Investment Committee - with the exception of one member - seemed mainly concerned about whether BREIT was a good residential landlord and not about the financial risks entailed.