Blackstone’s GSO fund closes on $3.2bn

Blackstone affiliate GSO Capital Partners has closed its Capital Solutions Fund on more than $3.25 billion in commitments. The debt-focused fund is targeting investments in rescue loans, distressed for control and opportunistic transactions like bankruptcy loans. To date, the fund has invested roughly $60 million in seven different companies.

“There are many great business franchises facing liquidity issues,” said senior managing director and co-founder of the fund, Bennett Goodman in a statement. 

Investors in the fund include domestic and international pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations and family offices. Last month, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System committed $250 million to the fund.

In select cases, the fund will invest alongside core Blackstone funds, according to documents from the San Diego County pension. San Diego County committed $50 million to the fund in April.

Capital Solutions Fund has a 1.5 percent management fee, which will be offset 100 percent by transaction fees, according to San Diego pension documents. The fund started marketing in March 2009. Blackstone acquired GSO, an independent spin-out from Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, in 2008.

Goodman co-founded the fund with Tripp Smith and Douglas Ostrover, all of whom worked at DLJ and Credit Suisse before founding GSO.  Other senior executives at GSO include David Posnick, senior managing director, who came from Credit Suisse and was a partner at Leonard Green; and former DLJ executives Jason New and Dwight Scott.

Other investors in GSO’s fund include the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System, the Korea Investment Corporation and the Teachers’ Retirement System of Texas.