Blackstone Inc Q3 2025 Earnings Call Summary

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

Question: Craig Siegenthaler - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : Hope everyone is doing well, and congrats on the 40-year anniversary. This is the first quarter following President Trump's executive order for privates and 4K. And just last week, I saw that you launched your defined contribution business. So I wanted to ask an open-end question. What are your plans? And do you do this alone? Or can you leverage your partnership with Vanguard and Wellington?

Question: Michael Cyprys - Morgan Stanley - Analyst : Wanted to ask about your brand strategy and how that's evolving as you extend further into the private wealth channel. Globally, understand you had, I believe, your first TV advertisement in Japan. So I was hoping if you could talk about your approach to marketing, advertising, brand. How that's evolving as you pursue opportunities from 401(k) to private wealth globally? And might we see a Blackstone stadium anytime soon?

Question: Bill Katz - Cowen and Company LLC - Analyst : Okay. Thank you very much. I apologize for the horse voice here this morning and our condolences to your loss as well; tragic. LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. OCTOBER 23, 2025 / 1:00PM, BX.N - Q3 2025 Blackstone Inc Earnings Call Just thinking about maybe Michael, a question for you. As you think about the interplay between the margin outlook ahead and also what seems to be a pretty healthy pipeline for realizations. Any thoughts on how we should think about the comp within the FRE versus the comp on gross realizations?

Question: Brian McKenna - Citizens JMP Securities LLC - Analyst : So I had a question on wealth. Retail investors today, they have access to a number of different strategies within private markets. But there are some parts of the market where the risk to rewards are better than others. So for example, lower base rates and spreads are a bit of a headwind for direct lending, returns are likely moving lower there, but it's generally a positive for private equity and real estate and performance should be accelerating there, all else equal. So I'm curious, how much time is being spent with your counterparts on education, just in terms of what you view as the proper allocations within private market portfolios through the cycle?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : One of the questions we get a lot on your investing strategy around data centers is how do we know we're not in the bubble. So just curious your response to that question. And then maybe you could help us understand a little bit what are the key drivers of returns for that strategy? Is there a cash flow component? Is it valuations? I know you talk a lot about supply and demand dynamics. To what extent might cap rates matter? So that would be helpful just to get a sense of what is sort of driving the excellent returns we've been seeing there.

Question: Alexander Blostein - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : John, I wanted to go back to the wealth discussion for a second, and I apologize for the two-parter, I guess, on this. So on credit, totally hear your point around the relative premium to liquid markets. But how important is the sort of 10%-ish gross return to the retail channel? So to the point you make, does that resonate or it's really viewed as an absolute product? And any sort of color you can give us on the ground today, what the response in either gross sales or redemptions has been to BCRED's dividend cut from a couple of weeks ago? And then zooming out, I was intrigued by the multi-asset comment you guys made around launches for next year. Could you maybe just expand on that, what that could look like, what parts of the market you're trying to attract with these vehicles?

Question: Brennan Hawken - Bank of Montreal - Analyst : I wanted to circle back on Alex's question. So totally get, John, that this is not a private credit issue that we've seen public markets or have a tendency to overreact and certainly, we've seen that. But curious about, you guys just recently had a dividend cut in BCRED. What I'm really curious about is what is the feedback you're hearing from the wealth management channel, given the big reaction in the public markets around some of this? Are you hearing similar things from the ground within your wealth management counterparts and partners? And what can you tell us about the flows since October began and how they're looking in the credit vehicles? Is there any sort of pullback with the dividend cuts and maybe some apprehension around credit, albeit misplaced?

Question: Brian Bedell - Deutsche Bank AG - Analyst : Great. You answered a lot on the private credit, but maybe just -- John, but maybe just one more area. And that would be like just the competition that you're seeing with banks or seeing banks become more competitive in the direct lending business, how is that impacting spreads? And then related to that, obviously, credit insurance has been a huge growth driver from a fundraising perspective, accounting for more than half of your fundraising over the past two years. Do you see that dynamic continuing? And then if I could just squeeze in one more to Michael, and that's just the outlook for base fee growth for 4Q on a year-over-year basis, just wanted to I think you may have talked about that earlier, but just wanted to reaffirm that.

Question: Steven Chubak - Wolfe Research - Analyst : So I wanted to ask on the real estate outlook. The performance indicators admittedly have been a bit mixed. On the positive side, monetization revenues tripled sequentially performance has also improved, but the pace of fundraising has moderated and the absolute return still remains tepid despite the interest rate tailwinds. So I was hoping you could speak to the performance outlook, both for opportunistic and core+ in 4Q and looking ahead to next year And just thoughts on the timing of an inflection in real estate fundraising and what would inform that expectation.

Question: Kenneth Worthington - JPMorgan Chase & Co - Analyst : You talked about a greater focus on the RIA channel for wealth. Maybe to help level set us, what is -- or how much of your wealth is RIA sold at this point versus the broker wirehouse channel? And is this focus about adding more in different sales personnel? Or does the product need to be adjusted as well in terms of fees and structure?

Question: Patrick Davitt - Bernstein Autonomous LLP - Analyst : A different angle on Brian's question. Maybe it's a bit too early to know, but had some wobbles in the bank loan market, to your points earlier, seen some deals pulled and/or reprice which I think you could argue was actually good for direct lending dynamics. So curious if you're seeing any signs of the banks are rethinking how aggressive they've been in that channel potentially getting less competitive because of what's happened and/or any sign new origination spreads could get a little bit wider on the back of those bank loan blow-ups.

Question: Arnaud Giblat - Exane Bnp Paribas - Analyst : In credit and insurance, your dry powder has cost doubled in the last 12 months. I was wondering if that was the case as well in direct lending, private debt, given how tight the spreads have become and lose the covenants or with the competition with both in the Canadian loan market? And specifically, if I could just follow on that specific point into BCRED, how do you see capacity developing? I mean is it -- if conditions remain really hot and tight, do you start worrying perhaps a bit about capacity and the speed that we you're deploying capital, assuming that flows remain strong?