Blackstone Group

Blackstone Group
Type Public
(NYSEBX)
Founded 1985
Founder(s) Peter G. Peterson
Stephen A. Schwarzman
Headquarters Flag of the United States.svg New York, NY, USA
Area served Worldwide
Key people Stephen A. Schwarzman
(Chairman) & (CEO)
Peter G. Peterson
(Senior Chairman)
Industry Financial Services
Products Private Equity
Investment management
Market cap US$ 3.74 billion (2008)[1]
Revenue US$ 3.050 billion (2007)
Operating income US$ 285 million (2007)
Net income US$ 1.623 billion (2007)
Total assets US$ 13.174 billion (2007)
Total equity US$ 4.226 billion (2007)
Employees 1,020 (2008)
Website The Blackstone Group

The Blackstone Group (NYSEBX) is a company that provides private equity, financial advisory, and investment management services. The firm is based in New York City, with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Hamburg, Paris, Mumbai, Tokyo and Hong Kong. One of the world's largest private equity firms,[2] it is part of the migration of companies from public to private hands — a total of some US$370 billion in deals in the United States in 2006.

Contents

History

Blackstone Group L.P. was founded in 1985 by Peter G. Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman with $400,000 in seed capital.[3] Blackstone is a cryptogram on the founders' names, Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson. Schwarz is German for black. Peter, or Petra in Greek, means stone or rock.

Blackstone ventures into hotels include acquiring Prime Hospitality (Wellesley Inns & Suites) and Extended Stay America in 2004, La Quinta Inns & Suites in 2005 and Hilton Hotels Corporation in 2007. Extended Stay Hotels was sold to The Lightstone Group in July 2007 and Wellesley Inns were folded into LaQuinta. [4]

Blackstone filed for an initial public offering to raise $4 billion on March 22, 2007.[5] Blackstone offered 133.3 million shares priced at $31.00 per unit. The stock began trading on the NYSE on June 22, 2007.

Business segments

Corporate private equity

Blackstone manages or owns holdings in Allied Waste, Graham Packaging, Celanese, Nalco, HealthMarkets, Houghton Mifflin, American Axle, Catalent Pharma Solutions, Prime Hospitality, Legoland, Universal Studios Parks, Encore Medical[6], La Quinta, Luxury Resorts (LXR), Pinnacle Foods, Hilton Hotels Corporation, Apria Healthcare, Travelport, and The Weather Channel.

Real estate

Blackstone holds more than 13,000,000 square feet (1,200,000 m2) of real estate in Boston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC.

Marketable alternative asset management

Blackstone offers private equity, real estate, and hedge funds, first used only for internal investments, but now open to clients.

Financial advisory services

References

External links