Blackstone Inc at Barclays Global Financial Services Conference Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Maybe just to kick it off, can you talk about your current view of the world? What are you seeing from a macro perspective? How do you see the environment shaking out over the next 6 to 12 months?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Got it. Well, that's a good segue into Blackstone's business. So with that view in mind, what does this all mean for the transaction environment, both in terms of your ability to invest and to realize and monetize investments that have been made?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Well, being the lazy analyst that I am, I'm very much appreciative. So that'll make our jobs a little easier.

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : So maybe a kind of high-level question about Blackstone. So you're the largest alternative asset manager in the world. So at $1 trillion of AUM, how do you think about growth at scale? And how are your traditional institutional LPs thinking about their private markets allocations?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Great. Maybe just on the fundraising side, can you talk about kind of the near-term pipeline. We're kind of towards the end of this $150 billion, 18 flagship fund. But what's the -- what you would be kind of keeping an eye out for?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Great. Switching gears a little bit. I want to ask you about the broader theme of bank competition, bank retrenchment. Last year, the story was around retrenchment. This year, it's more around competition or at least the narrative being discussed by investors. So how do you see the competitive landscape on the credit side as bank lending has opened back up? And how are you scaling origination to address what it looks like a very large opportunity?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Got it. Maybe that's a good segue into insurance. It's just kind of under the same umbrella at Blackstone. So can you talk a bit about your insurance model? And you've got a number of strategic partnerships. How does the pipeline look for additional partners there?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Got it. So maybe moving on to real estate. Can you talk a bit about where we are in the cycle? How does it impact your existing portfolio, the opportunity for new investments, thoughts on the impact of potentially lower rates in the future? Where are we there?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Great. Maybe pivoting to infrastructure firm. When you talked about infrastructure as a kind of key investing theme at scale. Your perpetual strategy, BIP recently crossed the $50 billion milestone. So from a fundraising -- asking about a more specific fund, but do you see this continuing to scale as it is. And then just as we're kind of tactically thinking about our models, can you kind of remind us what the FRPR process is for 2024 and beyond? And how should we kind of calibrate expectations for that one?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Got it. Maybe a couple of final questions, sort of more internal looking at Blackstone. So you always talk about how important people and culture are to the company's success. So how do you think about attracting high-quality talents, making sure they stay as the firm, continues to move past the trillion-dollar milestone?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : Got it. Maybe just one final question. Again, kind of thinking internally at Blackstone. So how involved are you in overseeing technology investments? How do you think about implementing new technologies like AI to kind of perform the business? What are the opportunities like there?

Question: Ben Budish - Barclays Capital Inc. - Analyst : All right. We're just about out of time there. But Michael, thank you so much. What a pleasure to have you, and I really appreciate it.