Information on Blackstone Tactical Opportunities

I’m interviewing for a job with Blackstone TacOpps next month. Does anybody have any info on what they're doing or what an interview with them might look like? Are they a good group?

What is Blackstone Tactical Opportunities?

Blackstone Tactical Opportunities was created as an opportunity to invest in ‘alternative assets’. They pursue investments in areas, for example, real estate, not normally pursued by other Blackstone Divisions. It works across their different business units, drawing from the many networks and intellectual capital of Blackstone Group. Essentially they invest in non-traditional avenues (BCP, GSO etc) while spreading the acquired knowledge of such investments across the firm.

Read about Blackstone Tactical Opperations' mandate in the image below.

APAE - Private Equity Partner:
TOG can be viewed as a catch-all of sorts. It essentially answers the question of "What do we do with investment ideas that we feel are still compelling even though they may fall beyond our investment mandate or outside our comfort levels for this fund?" (where 'this fund' = Strategic Partners, GSO, REPE, etc.).

I've heard mixed things. One guy said it was intellectually stimulating work (broad range of investment opportunities to review, no day was the same, developing a varied skill-set), and another said it felt like bitch work cleaning up the leftovers that other funds passed along to the team in TOG.

Those are my only two datapoints. I'm still not clear on what split there is between actually sourcing ideas that fall outside other funds' parameters vs. reviewing and not/investing in deals that were sourced by another Blackstone fund, but I hope this is helpful.

Blackstone Tactical Opportunities Careers

What sort of people work in Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities? Blackstone Tactical Opportunities works on a global scale and its senior team has been put together by drawing talent from across the other Blackstone business lines. This generates an interesting and eclectic skill set which is appropriate considering the sorts of opportunities they pursue.

Listen to David Blitzer, head of Blackstone Tactical Opportunities, describe what they do.

When preparing for an interview, consider that they will likely have technical questions for you. They will want to see that you have an understanding of ‘alternative assets’. Also, make sure you are brushed up on the finer points of some of these assets, real estate for example.

You can read more about Blackstone Group on the Wall Street Oasis Company Database

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I wouldn't describe it as just a special sit group. It's much more than that. They have an incredibly broad mandate to look at any investment opportunity. Blitzer's idea behind the group was to look at things that fall outside the mandates BCP, REPE, BEP, GSO, etc.

 

Check their direct employment site chief, they're hiring an analyst and associate. Anybody have any thoughts on what compensation might look like for analysts either in tacopps or across the board for 1st years?

 

You can find a few of their deals online - contact I have there said focus on deal thought process and information dynamics, I know they also leverage heavily off the Blackstone infrastructure for deal flow.
I don't get how you found an opening, I don't see anything on their career site only a brief description of the position at the bottom of TOPs summary page.

DLJ Analyst Class '96
 

I know an hbs guy who interned in that group last summer. From what he described, it seemed like it has wide investment mandates ranging from CDO tranches to spectrum. He said he wasn't going to go back (not sure if he was even given an offer to) because he wanted to focus on traditional HFs and what they did was too weird and not liquid enough.

 
Best Response

TOG can be viewed as a catch-all of sorts. It essentially answers the question of "What do we do with investment ideas that we feel are still compelling even though they may fall beyond our investment mandate or outside our comfort levels for this fund?" (where 'this fund' = Strategic Partners, GSO, REPE, etc.).

I've heard mixed things. One guy said it was intellectually stimulating work (broad range of investment opportunities to review, no day was the same, developing a varied skill-set), and another said it felt like bitch work cleaning up the leftovers that other funds passed along to the team in TOG.

Those are my only two datapoints. I'm still not clear on what split there is between actually sourcing ideas that fall outside other funds' parameters vs. reviewing and not/investing in deals that were sourced by another Blackstone fund, but I hope this is helpful.

I am permanently behind on PMs, it's not personal.
 

One of the newest initiatives at BX headed by David Blitzer. As others have mentioned, they'll evaluate any investments that fall outside of BX's traditional investment mandates (i.e. BCP, BREP, GSO, etc.); to clarify this further, unsuitability may be driven by return profile (aiming to blend to high teen gross IRRs using portfolio construction approach), duration, size, liquidity, etc. They play globally, in almost any asset class and across the capital structure. Senior team has been woven together by bringing in talent from other BX business lines. Premise of the group stems from synergies inherently created by information flow across BX's different businesses. Unfortunately no insight into the interview process.

 

Hey, I wanted to bump this thread as I have some questions regarding potential exit opps from this group. I am mainly wondering whether this group limits your chances to move into traditional PE/HF afterwards due to the specific investment strategy. At this stage, I am more interested in the broad mandate of TOG but you obviously do not want to put yourself in a niche at an early stage in your career. How would TOG prepare you for MF/UMM PE or Activist HFs. Would top IB be better? How is the Bschool track record?

 

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