Blackstone Closes New Credit Liquidity Fund on $1.3 Billion

The Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX) today announced the closing of
Blackstone Credit Liquidity Partners L.P. (BCLP) with capital
commitments in excess of $1.3 billion.

The fund was created to capitalize on the recent dislocations in
the credit markets by investing in a broad range of debt and
debt-related securities and instruments including bank debt, publicly
traded debt securities, bridge financings, securities issued by CDOs,
and other debt instruments, all on a global basis.

Hamilton (Tony) James, President of The Blackstone Group, said;
"Our objective is to generate superior risk-adjusted returns from a
combination of current income and capital appreciation. With
Blackstone´s outstanding track-record in debt and distressed
investing, we are confident that we can benefit our new fund´s
investors by capitalizing on current conditions in the credit
markets."

In addition to this new Credit Liquidity fund, Blackstone´s
corporate debt group manages 11 CDOs and two private investment
partnerships. These various vehicles, including BCLP, have aggregate
capital commitments of over $11 billion. They include seven US CDOs
($4.7 billion), four European CDOs ($2.9 billion) and two private
mezzanine funds ($2.1 billion).

Blackstone was assisted in the fundraising by Park Hill Group.

The Blackstone Group

The Blackstone Group is a leading global alternative asset manager
and provider of financial advisory services. Its alternative asset
management businesses include the management of corporate private
equity funds, real estate opportunity funds, funds of hedge funds,
mezzanine funds, senior debt funds, proprietary hedge funds and
closed-end mutual funds. The Blackstone Group also provides various
financial advisory services, including mergers and acquisitions
advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement
service. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com.