The Blackstone Group has closed Blackstone Credit Liquidity Partners with capital commitments in excess of $1.3 billion.

The fund was created to capitalize on the recent dislocations in the fixed-income markets by investing in a broad range of debt and debt-related securities and instruments including bank debt, publicly-traded debt securities, bridge financings, securities issued by collateralized debt obligations and other debt instruments, all on a global basis.

A spokesman said the fund operates very much like a private equity fund, with no hedging involved.

Our objective is to generate superior risk-adjusted returns from a combination of current income and capital appreciation,” Hamilton James, Blackstone’s president, said. “With Blackstone’s outstanding track-record in debt and distressed investing, we are confident that we can benefit our new fund’s investors by capitalizing on current conditions in the credit markets.”

Blackstone was assisted in the fundraising by Park Hill Group.

In addition to the new Credit Liquidity fund, Blackstone's corporate debt group manages 11 CDOs and two private investment partnerships in excess of $11 billion.