NEW YORK, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Blackstone Group LP, reported Thursday its second straight quarterly loss of 251 million U.S. dollars.

    The New York-based firm, one of the world's largest private equity funds, said it lost 97 cents per common unit during the first quarter.

    Deterioration in credit and equities markets caused Blackstone to lose 188.7 million dollars in performance fees and post a 215.6-million-dollar loss from fund investment activities.

    On Tuesday, Blackstone announced that it launched a new Asia-focused hedge fund, which will be based in Hong Kong with offices in Tokyo, Mumbai and New York.