Blackstone is preparing to open an office in Dubai's International Financial Centre, according to people familiar with the plans, a move that would return the world's largest alternative asset manager to the emirate it left in 2019 to set up a base in Abu Dhabi. The firm intends to retain its Abu Dhabi office, the people said.
Dubai's financial sector has grown substantially since the pandemic, aided by residency reforms and an increasing number of registrations by asset management firms, family offices, hedge funds and private banks. The prospective expansion comes as the Iran war has brought disruption to travel and supply chains across the region, with the broader impact on companies operating there only beginning to emerge more clearly.
Blackstone reported $1.35 trillion in assets under management, spanning private equity, real estate and credit. The firm has been expanding its private wealth business through senior appointments and by increasingly targeting individual investors in regions including Europe and the Middle East.
The company's Gulf investment activity has continued despite regional instability. Blackstone holds a stake in Dubai-based classifieds firm Property Finder, and this month it was named as one of the bidders for a stake in Kuwait Petroleum Corporation's oil pipeline network. Since the Iran war began, Blackstone has agreed a joint aircraft-leasing investment programme with Dubai's DAE and invested $250 million in a UAE-based payments and data intelligence platform.
Jon Gray, Blackstone's president and chief operating officer, said in a March statement that the firm sees significant opportunity to deploy capital at scale in the UAE to build companies able to grow both domestically and internationally, despite near-term headwinds. Gray is also a board member of XRG, Abu Dhabi's state oil company's international investment arm.
A Blackstone spokesperson said the company does not comment on speculative reports. Abu Dhabi is home to the vast majority of the UAE's oil reserves, and sovereign funds there are estimated to collectively manage more than $1.8 trillion in assets.
