Blackstone Inc at Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference Transcript

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

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : It's great. Look, why don't we start with a bit of a question on the macro side first with the economic outlook. Given Blackstone's breadth of investment capabilities, you always have very unique perspectives in terms of what's going on on the ground real time with respect to corporate health. So talk to us a little bit about that and what '26 looks like for the corporate world.

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. Let's translate that into the investment activity, which has really accelerated for you guys over the last couple of quarters. I think about $140 billion of capital deployed over the last 12 months. And again, the pace of that deployment has really accelerated. I guess looking out into 2026, can we talk a little bit about key themes and investment areas where you're finding the most attractive risk-adjusted returns? And also by the same token, talk a little bit about areas you're trying to avoid.

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Yeah. No, lots to unpack there. Thank you for that. Why don't we double-click on the lead, that first theme and probably the biggest theme, which is around AI, Blackstone was very early in identifying the secular opportunity. We've talked about it. It feels like for years, but it's finally here. Talk to us, I guess, maybe a little bit more about how you envision this market evolving from an investment perspective where it feels like other people are on to this as well and the opportunity set is still there, but there's a lot more capital obviously chasing that around right now. So what are the parts of the market where you still feel comfortable deploying capital? What do you see in terms of performance of these assets relative to your expectations? And then within AI, what are the risks?

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. It will be fascinating to watch, for sure. So all right. Another hot topic, credit, not surprisingly. And it feels like the news flow around that has died down a little bit. But it's clearly still very much top of mind for investors. When we take ourselves out of the day-to-day news flow related to this topic, talk to us maybe a little bit of what you guys are seeing as far as credit trends across the portfolio, not just in direct lending, but maybe in your private credit holistically, that's part one. And then part two, the development with Bank of England. You and I think some of the others are effectively volunteering to participate in the stress test, which might be quite helpful to the ecosystem. What do you think it's going to look like?

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Yeah. That all makes a lot of sense. Why don't we spend a couple of minutes on another mega trend out there, which is the wealth market. Enormously powerful from a growth perspective for you and many of your peers. But I do think Blackstone is still, by far and away, the leader, I think you have roughly 50% market share of the industry fee pool in this market. So let's spend a couple of minutes there. First, I'd love to get your perspective on the road map for additional product innovation. So you guys were early with BREIT and BCRED. You obviously have a product in private equity. You have one in infra. What is the makeup of this product set looks like over the next couple of years? What else are you working on that will be rolling out in the next one to two years? LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 10, 2025 / 5:20PM, BX.N - Blackstone Inc at Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : I'm going to try for that later, but you always shut me down on this one, so --

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Let's talk a little bit more what's going on in the ground, I guess, today. Obviously, lots of focus on credit, like we talked about earlier. It's really the first time that the growth in this private credit part of the market with wealth gets tested like we are seeing now with a lot of headlines and the barrage of headlines on this part of the market for the last couple of months now. Obviously, BCRED had a filing out this morning. Redemption picked up not quite to 5%, but close, but also gross sales slowdown as of December 1. LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 10, 2025 / 5:20PM, BX.N - Blackstone Inc at Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference So what are you hearing on the ground from financial advisers, the wire house, the gatekeepers in terms of this being either a short-term reaction to the news flow or something more substantive?

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. That all makes sense. Okay. Let's talk about another important area for Blackstone, which is obviously the real estate business. We talked a little bit about that before we got on stage, but clearly feels like the sentiment from some of your peers and then marketplace broadly around real estate is starting to improve. It's something you talked about as well in the past. So give us your expectations around growth in your real estate franchise for the next 12 to 18 months.

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great. Okay. Let's pivot from the themes to maybe some of the financial KPIs for the business, really starting with fundraising. Again, an incredible year, I think, over $225 billion over the last 12 months of inflows across the franchise as you look out into 2026, what are your early expectations for fundraising?

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Yeah. Well, speaking on market backdrop. The outlook for realization and broadly capital markets activity has definitely been a bright spot in these conversations for the last two days. So you've been also pretty bullish on that for a couple of quarters. I think one of the points you made is that Blackstone's IPO pipeline is the highest it's been since 2021. Talk to us a little bit more about your expectations for realizations over the next 12 months? And maybe help us frame that in some a historical context because it does feel like there's a lot of pent-up demand on the exit side.

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : With a couple of minutes left on the clock, I'd love to wrap up with a couple of thoughts on evolution to the business, given the fact that you guys celebrated your 40th year anniversary this year, you've been there, I believe, 33 years of those 40. Couple that with really performance of the stock, and it's not just you, but the whole space has struggled to bid this year, coming off a phenomenal two-year run, and I think that's important to acknowledge. But how do you think the company is evolving, if you see further points in the cycle where there is a bigger disconnect between the value and what your forward looks like, how are you thinking about capital management in that context or any other thoughts around that would be helpful?

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Well, we talked about a lot of themes over the course of the day today. I was hoping you could hit on one more theme, which is your holiday video. So if you're willing to share anything with us today, that will be a great interest to --

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : On that note, thank you so much, Jon.