The close on BREP Europe V comes about a week after Blackstone announced that it had sold its Logicor industrial platform to China Investment Corp. for €12.25 billion, or approximately US$13.8 billion. The sale by Blackstone-managed real estate funds reportedly is the biggest private equity deal to date in Europe.

LONDON—Blackstone said Thursday it had closed its latest European opportunistic real estate fund at its hard cap of €7.8 billion, or approximately US$8.75 billion. It's now the largest dedicated European property fund raised to date.

“We are grateful to our limited partners for their continued support,” says Anthony Myers, Blackstone's head of real estate Europe. “The fund is already over 20% invested or committed, and we continue to see compelling opportunities to deploy capital across the continent, while delivering certainty to sellers and adding value to our properties.”

Citing documents from the San Francisco Employees Retirement System, one of BREP Europe V's investors, PERE reported Thursday that Blackstone is targeting a 15% net IRR and a 1.7x net multiple for the new fund. In a 2016 media call, Blackstone president Hamilton James said BREP Europe IV had generated a net IRR of 24% and a 1x multiple as of Dec. 31, 2016, PERE reported. The fund closed at €6.7 billion, or approximately $US$8.2 billion.

Blackstone plans to invest 60 percent of the fund's capital into the core European markets of the UK, Germany and France, but it will also pursue distressed assets in Ireland, Italy and Spain, according to SFERS documents cited by PERE. Target property sectors include industrial, office, residential and hotels.

The close on BREP Europe V comes about a week after Blackstone announced that it had sold its Logicor industrial platform to China Investment Corp. for €12.25 billion, or approximately US$13.8 billion. The sale by Blackstone-managed real estate funds reportedly is the biggest private equity deal to date in Europe.