Blackstone’s Gray Calls Firm’s Wealth Franchise ‘Underestimated’

Blackstone Inc. President Jon Gray said people underestimate the firm’s $310 billion wealth franchise amid retail investors’ concerns over private credit and other alternative assets.

“We had a strong first quarter,” Gray said Tuesday at the Morgan Stanley US Financials Conference. “We then had the war and all the noise on private credit, which was obviously very loud.”

That $1.8 trillion private credit market faced a reckoning in recent months as retail investors have sought to withdraw their cash from retail products, including business development companies, a private credit product geared for individuals known as BDCs. Many asset managers began ...