Blackstone Alum Goodman Seeks $2.5 Billion for Stakes Business

(Bloomberg) -- Bennett Goodman is revving up the fundraising machine for his new investing venture two years after leaving Blackstone Inc.

Goodman’s Hunter Point Capital is looking to raise as much as $2.5 billion for a fund that will buy minority stakes in private equity, credit and real estate-focused firms.

The 64-year-old helped build a credit-investing colossus as the G in Blackstone’s GSO, and is looking to recreate a piece of that fundraising juggernaut in his third act. Goodman started off as a Wall Street banker before becoming an investor and will now look to bet big on hand-picked firms poised for investing success.

With the explosive growth in the world of private investing, firms that cater to that sector have mushroomed, and more recently, so has the business of slicing off an ownership stake in them. It allows founders to unlock some of their wealth tied up in the funds, as well as fostering new ties with established veterans in the industry who can help boost fundraising.

A spokesperson for New York-based Hunter Point declined to comment.

Hunter Point has told backers some of its funding was coming from Jacob Rothschild, the British banking family scion. Carlyle Group Inc. co-founder David Rubenstein is also an investor. The firm already has commitments totaling $1 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter, including $275 million from the Hunter Point team. It’s also planning to offer liquidity for its investors through an arrangement with Nasdaq Private Market.

Read more: Goodman returns with new firm buying stakes

Goodman founded GSO Capital with Tripp Smith and Doug Ostrover in 2005, sold it to Blackstone in 2008 and then helped increase assets to more than $125 billion by the time the three founders left. GSO has since been rebranded as Blackstone Credit, marking a new chapter after the departure of the founders.

Hunter Point, which last year named Avi Kalichstein its chief executive officer, is targeting established firms with at least $3 billion in assets that it considers well poised for future growth. The goal is to target as much as 20% of IRR -- a popular metric used in the industry to estimate profitability of investments, according to marketing materials.

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