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n September , Blackstone , the mammoth alternative investment management company , agreed to sell the economy hotel chain Motel 6 and sister brand Studio 6 to India ’ s Oyo in an all-cash transaction valued at $ 525 million . Blackstone had acquired Motel 6 in 2012 from Accor for $ 1.9 billion and subsequently pursued a steady path toward pure franchising , which helped to generate more than $ 1 billion in profit over its hold period , the company said .
The compelling return might lead one to suspect Blackstone of investing more heavily in hotel assets and hotel companies . After all , one of Blackstone ’ s greatest triumphs was its acquisition and divestment of Hilton , which netted it $ 14 billion when it cycled out of it in 2018 . Heady numbers , to be sure , but there was scant discussion of hotels during the company ’ s third-quarter earnings call , a signal that Blackstone has made a shift from hospitality into other higher-demand , high-conviction sectors . These include real estate investment in warehouses , family housing and data centers , which compose around 90 % of all of Blackstone ’ s real estate investments . ( In September , Blackstone agreed to acquire AirTrunk , the largest datacenter operator in the Asia- Pacific region , for $ 16 billion . The Blackstone portfolio consists of $ 70 billion of data centers .)
Blackstone now has $ 1.1 trillion in assets under management and saw $ 41 billion of inflows during the quarter , while investing $ 54 billion of capital at a time when the Federal Reserve has begun to loosen its grip by cutting rates , which is leading to a lower cost of capital .
Blackstone ’ s advantage is its preternatural ability to find itself ahead of the curve , able to spot trends and movements before they happen and deploy capital into those growth areas . It calls itself a thematic investor . “ We ’ ve spent considerable time on our earnings calls discussing how we see the macro-environment unfold ,” said Stephen Schwarzman , co-founder and CEO of Blackstone . Though inflation has been a recurring theme and talking point , Blackstone , Schwarzman said , saw it moderating “ more quickly than many other market participants ,” paving the way for the Fed to begin cutting interest rates .
“ An easing of the cost of capital [ is ] very positive for Blackstone ’ s asset values and a catalyst for transaction activity , including deployment and ultimately realizations , which in turn fuel fundraising ,” he said . “ This is the virtuous cycle that powers our business ,” a sentiment reiterated by Jon Gray , president and COO of Blackstone , later in the earnings call .
To be sure , Blackstone sees this part of the cycle as gotime . Foreseeing it is almost sport for the company , with Schwarzman calling out the “ fun in anticipating improving
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