Absolute Return Composite (AR), the largest hedge fund strategy within Blackstone’s multi-asset investing arm, produced a near 12% return for 2025, according to two people familiar with the figures who were not authorized to discuss them publicly. That performance outpaced the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, which gained 7.1% over the same period.
Blackstone, which manages about $1.2 trillion in assets, is scheduled to release fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results on Thursday. The company will include returns for its Blackstone Multi-Asset Investing unit - known as BXMA - which oversees the AR platform.
Within the fourth quarter, AR returned 3.9% after fees, the sources said, compared with a 1.4% return for the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index. The people attributed AR’s gains to positive performance across several strategy areas - equities, computer-driven investing, credit and macro bets - and noted that AR has now recorded 33 consecutive months of positive net performance.
AR constitutes the majority of BXMA’s approximately $93 billion in assets under management, making its results central to the unit’s overall performance. A Blackstone representative declined to comment on the reported figures.
The AR platform was founded roughly three decades ago and is run by David Ben-Ur. He reports to Joe Dowling, the executive in charge of all BXMA strategies. Dowling, who joined Blackstone five years ago from Brown University’s endowment fund, has implemented changes to the portfolio, shifting asset allocations and enhancing the unit’s risk metrics. As part of a broader strategic reorientation away from primarily allocating capital through a fund of hedge funds toward a wider range of alternative investments, the unit was renamed from Blackstone Alternative Asset Management to Blackstone Multi-Asset Investing.
Context and implications
The reported outperformance of AR relative to the HFRX benchmark will be incorporated into BXMA’s published results on Thursday, when investors will obtain official confirmation and further detail on the composition of returns.