The Blackstone Group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 12 The Blackstone Group From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Blackstone Group L.P. is an American multinational The Blackstone Group L.P. private equity, investment banking, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in New York City. As the largest alternative investment firm in the world,[2] Blackstone specializes in private equity, credit and hedge fund investment strategies, as well as financial advisory Type Public services, such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A), Traded as NYSE: BX restructurings and reorganizations, and private placements.[3] (http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/lcddata.html? Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest ticker=bx) investors in leveraged buyout transactions over the last decade, Industry Financial Services while its real estate business has actively acquired commercial Founded 1985 real estate. Since its inception, Blackstone has completed investments in such notable companies as Hilton Worldwide, Founder(s) Peter G. Peterson Equity Office Properties, Republic Services, AlliedBarton, Stephen A. Schwarzman [4] United Biscuits, Freescale Semiconductor, Vivint and Headquarters 345 Park Avenue [5] Travelport. Manhattan, New York City, USA Blackstone was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions Key people Stephen A. Schwarzman boutique by Peter G. Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman, --Chairman and CEO who had previously worked together at Lehman Brothers, Hamilton James Kuhn, Loeb Inc. Over the course of two decades, Blackstone --President & COO has evolved into one of the world's largest private equity J. Tomilson Hill [2] investment firms. In 2007, Blackstone completed a $4 billion --Vice Chairman initial public offering to become one of the first major private Jonathan D. Gray equity firms to list shares in its management company on a --Global Head of Real Estate public exchange.[6][7] Blackstone is headquartered at 345 Park Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, with eight additional Products Private Equity offices in the United States, as well as offices in London, Paris, Investment Banking Düsseldorf, Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Investment Management Mumbai, and Dubai. Asset Management Revenue US$3.623 billion (2012) Net income US$0.218 billion (2012) Contents AUM US$210 billion (2012)[1] ◾ 1 Business segments Total assets US$28.931 billion (2012) ◾ 1.1 Corporate private equity Employees 1,585 (2012) ◾ 1.2 Real estate Website www.blackstone.com 1.3 Marketable alternative asset management ◾ (http://www.blackstone.com/) ◾ 1.4 Financial advisory services ◾ 1.5 Technology: Innovations & Infrastructure ◾ 2 Criticism ◾ 2.1 Credit Default Swap ◾ 3 History ◾ 3.1 Founding and early history ◾ 3.2 1990s ◾ 3.3 Early 2000s ◾ 3.4 The Buyout Boom (2005-2007) ◾ 3.5 Initial public offering in 2007 ◾ 3.6 Since 2008 ◾ 4 See also ◾ 5 References ◾ 6 External links Business segments http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blackstone_Group 2/01/2014 The Blackstone Group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 2 of 12 Blackstone is organized into four business segments:[3] ◾ Corporate private equity - Management of Blackstone's family of private equity funds investing in leveraged buyout transactions; ◾ Investment Banking and Financial Advisory - Includes Blackstone's mergers and acquisitions advisory services, restructuring and reorganization advisory services and fund placement services for alternative investment funds; ◾ Marketable Alternative Asset Management - Management of Blackstone's funds of hedge funds, mezzanine funds, senior debt vehicles, and closed-end mutual funds; and ◾ Real Estate - Management of Blackstone's family of real estate investment funds. Corporate private equity As of 2011, Blackstone is the world's fifth-largest private equity firm by committed capital, focussing primarily on leveraged buyouts of more mature companies.[6] The firm also invests through minority investments, corporate partnerships and industry consolidations, and Blackstone's headquarters at occasionally, start-up investments in new entrants into existing industries. The firm focuses 345 Park Avenue, midtown on friendly investments in large capitalization companies.[3] Manhattan, New York City Blackstone's private equity business employs approximately 120 investment professionals in New York City; London; Menlo Park, California; Mumbai; Hong Kong; and Beijing.[5] Historically, Blackstone has primarily relied on private equity funds, pools of committed capital from pension funds, insurance companies, endowments, fund of funds, high net worth individuals, sovereign wealth funds and other institutional investors.[8] As of the end of 2008, Blackstone had completed fundraising for six funds with total investor commitments of over $36 billion, including five traditional private equity fund and a separate fund focusing on telecommunications investments. Following is a summary of Blackstone's private equity funds raised from its inception through the beginning of 2009:[9] Vintage Committed Fund Year Capital ($m) Blackstone Capital Partners I 1987 $800 Blackstone Capital Partners II 1994 $1,270 Blackstone Capital Partners III 1997 $3,780 Blackstone Communications Partners I 2000 $2,019 Blackstone Capital Partners IV 2003 $6,450 Blackstone Capital Partners V 2006 $21,700 Blackstone Capital Partners VI 2010 $13,500 From 1987 to the time of its IPO filing in 2007, Blackstone invested approximately $20 billion in capital in 109 private equity transactions.[3] Blackstone's most notable investments include Allied Waste,[10] AlliedBarton Security Services, Graham Packaging, Celanese, Nalco, HealthMarkets, Houghton Mifflin, American Axle, TRW Automotive, Catalent Pharma Solutions, Prime Hospitality, Legoland, Madame Tussauds,[11] La Quinta, Luxury Resorts (LXR), Pinnacle Foods, Hilton Hotels Corporation, Apria Healthcare, Travelport, The Weather Channel (United States) and The PortAventura Resort. In 2009 Blackstone purchased Busch Entertainment (comprising the Sea World Parks, Busch Garden Parks and the 2 water parks).[12] In 2012 Blackstone acquired a controlling interest in Utah-based Vivint, Inc., a home automation, security and energy company.[13] Former notable investments include Universal Studios Parks, which was sold to Comcast. Real estate Blackstone began building its real estate investment business in 1992 with the acquisition of a series of hotel businesses and has built it into a global operation with 122 investment professionals in the United States, Europe and Asia. The real estate business has raised approximately $28 billion for a variety of fund vehicles, including six US-focused funds and three http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blackstone_Group 2/01/2014 The Blackstone Group - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 3 of 12 International opportunity funds. Blackstone also raised a real estate special situations fund focusing on non-controlling debt and equity investment opportunities. The special situations fund invests directly in real estate as well as private and publicly traded real estate-related securities.[3][14] The following is a summary of Blackstone's real estate funds raised from inception through November 2009:[9] Vintage Committed Fund Year Capital ($m) Blackstone Real Estate Partners I 1994 $485 Blackstone Real Estate Partners II 1996 $1,300 Blackstone Real Estate Partners III 1999 $1,500 Blackstone Real Estate Partners International (Europe) 2001 €800 Blackstone Real Estate Partners IV 2003 $2,500 Blackstone Real Estate Partners International (Europe) II 2006 €1,550 Blackstone Real Estate Partners V 2006 $5,250 Blackstone Real Estate Partners VI 2007 $10,900 Blackstone Real Estate Special Situations PE Fund 2008 $1,000 Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe III 2009 €3,100 From 1987 through the time of its IPO filing in 2007, Blackstone invested more than $13 billion in 212 real estate transactions and is a major owner of real estate throughout the US and Europe.[3] Among Blackstone's most notable real estate investments have included Equity Office Properties, Hilton Hotels Corporation, Trizec Properties, Center Parcs UK, La Quinta Inns & Suites, Wyndham Worldwide, Southern Cross Healthcare and Centro Properties.[15] The purchase and subsequent profitable IPO of Southern Cross led to controversy in the UK. Part of the purchase involved splitting the business into a property company, NHP, and a care home business, which Blackstone claimed would become "the leading company in the elderly care market". In May 2011 Southern Cross, now independent, was almost bankrupt, jeopardising 31,000 elderly residents in 750 care homes. It denied blame, although Blackstone was widely accused in the media for selling on the company with an unsustainable business model and crippled with an impossible sale and leaseback strategy.[16][17] After subprime mortgage crisis, Blackstone Group LP has bought more than $5.5 billion single-family homes for rent and then sell when the prices rise.[18] Marketable alternative asset management Main article: GSO Capital Partners In 1990, Blackstone created a fund of hedge funds business to manage the internal assets for Blackstone and its senior managers. Over the years, this business evolved into Blackstone's marketable alternative asset management segment, which was opened to institutional investors. Among the investments included in this segment are funds of hedge funds, mezzanine funds, senior debt vehicles, proprietary hedge funds and closed-end mutual