Blackstone REIT limits investor redemptions again in March

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Blackstone Inc said on Monday that it had again blocked withdrawals from its $70 billion real estate income trust in March as the private equity firm faced a flurry of redemption requests.

Blackstone has been exercising its right to block investor withdrawals from BREIT since November last year after requests exceeded a preset 5% of the net asset value of the fund.

BREIT fulfilled withdrawal requests of $666 million in March, representing only 15% of the $4.5 billion in total redemption requests for the month, the firm said in a letter to investors.

Total redemption requests for March were 15% higher than the approximately $3.9 billion demanded by investors in February but 16% lower than the $5.3 billion Blackstone received in January.

The level of withdrawal requests is expected to normalize over time as Blackstone works through its backlog, Blackstone President Jonathan Gray said during an analyst earnings call in January.

(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh; Editing by Conor Humphries)