Blackstone Goes Public

Stories

20 Stories

November 2008
- Credit Crisis Spells Disaster for Private Equity Firms
  
  New York Times | Nov 3, 08 11:30 AM CST
  
  (Newser Summary) - After a nearly 3-year buyout spree, private equity firms are facing tightened credit conditions just as slumping consumer spending squeezes many of their acquisitions, the New York Times reports. The leveraged-buyout bubble that culminated in $796 billion in deals in 2007 is bursting, leading to a grim reckoning as firms saddled with the debt used to buy them are unable to secure fresh credit to weather the downturn. More »
March 2008
- Landmark NY Library to Be Renamed for Donor
  
  New York Times | Mar 11, 08 3:30 AM CDT
  
  (Newser Summary) - Following the style of sports stadiums, Manhattan's stately beaux arts library on Fifth Avenue will be renamed for a key contributor to a billion-dollar expansion of the library system. Private equity king Stephen Schwarzman is giving the library $100 million from his several-billion-dollar fortune, reports the New York Times . Schwarzman, 61, chief executive of the Blackstone Group, says renaming the landmark building—with plans to etch his moniker into the facade—was not his idea. More »
October 2007
- Blackstone Pushes to Delay Tax Increase Bill
  
  Bloomberg | Oct 23, 07 12:40 PM CDT
  
  (Newser Summary) - If Blackstone and other buyout firms can't kill a proposed bill that would increase their taxes, they'll try for a 10-year delay in enacting it. Under pressure from lobbyists, lawmakers are discussing doubling the proposed 5-year grace period, Bloomberg reports. The legislation, introduced before Blackstone went public in June, has been the target of over $5 million worth of lobbying by private equity firms. More »
September 2007
- Blackstone Lobbying Backfires
  
  Bloomberg | Sep 21, 07 8:10 PM CDT
  
  (Newser Summary) - Private equity firms launched their first coordinated effort at lobbying this year—and overshot by a long stretch, Bloomberg reports. Blackstone and 11 other firms joined hands to fight a tax hike on carried interest—fund managers' share of profits—and have gone so far as to argue that the lower rate they enjoy spurs development in poor communities. As one GOP congressman put it, "When they start talking about women and children, they're overreaching.'' More »
July 2007
- Big Biz Lobbyists Sit Out Private Equity Tax Fight
  
  Financial Times (UK) | Jul 30, 07 11:51 AM CDT
  
  (Newser Summary) - Two big business lobbying groups are sitting out the fight in Congress over increasing taxes on private-equity earnings—in part, the Financial Times reports, because many of their members are threatened by the rise of private equity. Big firms like Blackstone pay traditional banks hefty fees for the underwriting their IPOs, but they also take business away from them. More »
- The Top 10 Investors
  
  BusinessWeek | Jul 18, 07 5:16 PM CDT
  
  (Newser Summary) - Not only are these investors sitting on mountains of doubloons—a sure sign of financial savvy—but they have also changed the way people think about money and investing. John Bogle, founder, the Vanguard Group. Now president, Bogle Financial Markets Research Center. Warren Buffett, CEO and chairman, Berkshire Hathaway. David Shaw, chairman, president, and CEO, D.E. Shaw & Co. Also founder, adviser, and partner in firms including IDEXX Laboratories, Black Point Partners, Stanford Systems, and Attenuon. G. Kenneth Heebner, chairman, Capital Growth Management Limited. Bill Gross, chief investment officer, Pacific Investment Management Co., which he helped found in 1971. More »
- Blackstone Partners Profit on IPO Taxes
  
  New York Times | Jul 13, 07 10:54 AM CDT
  
  (Newser Summary) - The Blackstone Group's partners have expertly negotiated a labyrinth of loopholes to dodge taxes on $3.7 billion they raised with an IPO last month, the Times reports. The maneuver comes as congress discusses what to tax private equity managers, but analysts say the rate debate misses the point; firms are just too good at dancing through the tax code. More »
- Euro Hotels Hot After Blackstone Deal
  
  Financial Times (UK) | Jul 5, 07 4:34 AM CDT
  
  (Newser Summary) - Investors are snapping up shares of some Europe's biggest hotel chains, the Financial Times reports, as the market bets that more private equity firms will tuck into new cross-Atlantic deals. They're inspired by Blackstone's $26 billion Hilton offer, and a banner year for hotel buyouts more generally. More »
- KKR Makes IPO Official
  
  Bloomberg | Jul 3, 07 7:34 PM CDT
  
  (Newser Summary) - Undeterred by the possibility of potentially devastatingly tax-law changes, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts firmed up its IPO plans today, filing SEC documents that value the issue at up to $1.25 billion. The private (for now) equity firm said it will list as a partnership, like archrival Blackstone, which went public last month to the tune of more than $4 billion. More »
June 2007
- Mortgage Worries Drive Markets Down
  
  Bloomberg | Jun 22, 07 4:45 PM CDT
  
  (Newser Summary) - The major exchanges plummeted today, wrapping up a week of seesawing during which the Dow and the S&P 500 lost about 2% and the Nasdaq fell 1.4%. Even Bear Stearns' announcement that it will bail out a hedge fund entangled in subprime loans couldn't stop the bleeding. The Dow ended the day at 13,360.26, down 185. 58, or 1.4%. More »
- KKR Joins IPO Party
  
  Wall Street Journal | Jun 22, 07 9:05 AM CDT
  
  (Newser Summary) - Corporate raiders Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. have announced an initial public offering , on the heels of a wildly successful $34B IPO by rival Blackstone yesterday. The mammoth LBO group, whose boss Henry Kravis maintains a well known rivalry with Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzmann, waited to make sure Blackstone swam before making the announcement. More »
- Blackstone IPO Fetches $4.13B
  
  Bloomberg | Jun 21, 07 5:05 PM CDT
  
  (Newser Summary) - The Blackstone Group went public today, selling 133.3 million shares at $31 and raking in $4.13 billion, the largest American IPO since 2002. The keenly anticipated issue values the private equity firm, founded by Stephen Schwarzman 27 years ago with $400,000, at $33.5 billion; the price bodes well for other buyout specialists. KKR and Carlyle are also considering going public, Bloomberg reports. More »
- Senate Puts Blackstone on Notice
  
  Bloomberg | Jun 15, 07 12:48 PM CDT
  
  (Newser Summary) - Less than 2 weeks ahead of Blackstone's IPO, bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate yesterday threatens to hamper or halt the avidly anticipated stock sale. The private equity behemoth's tax bill would more than double if the measure—under which partnerships like Blackstone would pay the 35% corporate rate rather than the 15% capital gains rate that currently applies—passes. More »
- Blackstone IPO Payouts Will Eclipse Google
  
  Wall Street Journal | Jun 12, 07 5:32 AM CDT
  
  (Newser Summary) - Huge windfalls due the top executives of the Blackstone Group from their IPO late this month will eclipse even the payday enjoyed by the Google founders three years ago, the Wall Street Journal reports. CEO Stephen Schwarzman will make $677 million and retain a $7.5 billion stake in the company—more than double that of Sergey Brin and Larry Page. More »
- Blackstone Honchos Cash In on IPO
  
  Bloomberg | Jun 11, 07 9:04 AM CDT
  
  (Newser Summary) - And the billionaires get richer. Blackstone founders Steve Schwarzman and Pete Peterson will collect a combined $2.33 bil from the private equity giant's planned IPO, which could take place as early as late June. Schwarzman will keep a 24% stake in the $32B company, worth just under $450M, and the 80-year-old Peterson will cash out with 4% equity, netting him $1.9B. More »
May 2007
- China to Buy $3B Stake in Blackstone
  
  Financial Times (UK) | May 21, 07 7:18 AM CDT
  
  (Newser Summary) - The Chinese government will buy a 9.9% stake in Blackstone, the US private equity fund that's about to launch its IPO. The $3 billion purchase of nonvoting shares, the first time China has invested its enormous foreign reserves in commercial stock, is meant to exploit a private equity market booming almost as much as China itself. More »
- Blackstone Makes $7.8B Deal for Alliance
  
  Reuters | May 17, 07 2:55 PM CDT
  
  (Newser Summary) - Blackstone has snapped up credit card services provider Alliance Data for $7.8 billion, joining a surge of private equity into dull but profitable back-office firms. The 30% above-market offer for Alliance, which also runs a data processing unit, is the latest in a wave of takeovers in the financial-processing sector that started with KKR's April bid for First Data. More »
March 2007
- Sloan Reviews the Blackstone IPO Filing
  
  MSNBC | Mar 26, 07 7:50 AM CDT
  
  (Newser Summary) - The IPO filing for the notoriously secretive Blackstone Group wasn't the tell-all Wall Street watchers had hoped for, says Newsweek’s Wall Street editor Allan Sloan, who searched in vain for how big a stake is held by the private equity partnership's two Mr. Bigs, Steve Schwarzman and Pete Peterson, and how much they and their partners have been paying themselves. More »
March 2002
- BLACKSTONE Group, the US investment bank, is targeting Europe with $2.5bn of cash from its global buyout fund
  
  Sunday Business | Mar 24, 02
  
  BLACKSTONE Group, the US investment bank, is targeting Europe with $2.5bn of cash from its global buyout fund. The New York-based group has put managing directors, David Blitzer and Simon Lonergan, in London to look for deals in the UK and continental Europe. Blitzer will focus on general buyouts while Lonergan will focus on the telecoms industry. Blackstone is allocating about one-third of its global fund to Europe. This is the largest allocation of private-equity money to the region by such a US firm. However, Blitzer cautioned that the company will not invest the money if it cannot find...
July 1989
- Creating Connections at Blackstone Group;Investment Firm Sees Long-Term Profit in Blue-Chip, Friendly and Japanese Deals
  
  Washington Post | Jul 30, 89
  
  "The game is deceptively simple," said Stephen Schwarzman, president of the three-year-old investment "boutique" called the Blackstone Group, as he leaned over a Japanese board game called "Go" that rested on a coffee table in his thickly carpeted office. Picking up a small black stone from a bag of playing pieces, Schwarzman explained, "The more you play it, the more strategy you see is involved. It is a game of encirclement. You try to encircle the opposing side's stones and then remove them from the board."