Type | Private Partnership |
---|---|
Founded | 1987 |
Key people | Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., Chairman William E. Conway, Jr., Founder Daniel A. D'Aniello, Founder David M. Rubenstein, Founder John F. Harris, CFO |
Industry | Financial Services |
Products | Management buyouts Real estate Leveraged finance Venture and growth capital |
Revenue | Undisclosed to public |
Employees | 415,000 |
Website | www.carlyle.com |
The Carlyle Group is a global private equity investment firm, based in Washington, D.C., with more than $89 billion of equity capital under management.[1] The firm operates four fund families, focusing on leveraged buyouts, growth capital, real estate and leveraged finance investments. The firm employs more than 575 investment professionals in 21 countries with several offices in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia; its portfolio companies employ more than 415,000 people worldwide. Carlyle has over 1200 investors in 68 countries.
The firm has employed political figures and notable investors. Some of these figures include as former US President George H. W. Bush and former US Secretary of State James A. Baker III.
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Carlyle was founded in 1987 by Stephen L. Norris and David M. Rubenstein.[2] As they wanted the firm to outlive them, Norris and Rubenstein named the firm after the Upper East Side area hotel in New York City, the Carlyle Hotel, where they first met to discuss the idea.
Norris and Rubenstein later hired Dan D'Aniello, William Conway and Greg Rosenbaum.[3] Rosenbaum left in 1987[4]; Norris left in 1995[5]. The three remaining founders are reported to collectively own around a 50% interest in the group's general partnership.
Carlyle has only allowed two outsiders to buy into its partnership. The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) is the only US institution which owns a stake in the partnership, holding 5.5% of Carlyle for which it paid $175 million in 2001 and which was worth about $1 billion by 2007.[6] In September 2007, Mubadala Development Company, an investment vehicle for the government of Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates, purchased a 7.5% stake for $1.35 billion.[6]
Carlyle's current chairman is Lou Gerstner, former chairman and CEO of IBM and Nabisco. Carlyle is the largest private equity firm in the world, according to a ranking called the PEI 50.
Carlyle deals in the following industries: aerospace and defense, automotive, consumer and retail, energy and power, health care, real estate, technology and business services, telecommunications and media, and transportation. The Carlyle Group's investments are focused on East Asia, Europe and North America, with most investment money coming from the United States (65%), Europe (25%), Asia (6%), Latin America, and the Middle East. Defense investments represent about 1% of the group's current portfolio; for example, Carlyle owns 33.8% of QinetiQ, the recently privatized British defense contractor.
Though known for its expertise in aerospace and defense, Carlyle invested more than thirty percent of its assets in telecommunications and media. Noted portfolio companies are Dex Media, the former directories business of Qwest Communications; Willcom, a Japanese wireless company; Casema, a Dutch cable company; and Insight Communications, the ninth largest cable company in the U.S. The Carlyle Group was once a major investor in US Investigations Services, which is the privatized arm of the United States Office of Personnel Management's Office of Federal Investigations, but has since divested itself, selling its stake to Providence Equity Partners in 2007.
Brand-name companies that Carlyle owns include: Dunkin' Brands, which owns Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins, and oral hygiene company Water Pik. Carlyle also recently took rental car company Hertz public.
On January 29 2007, Carlyle announced that it would acquire Synagro Technologies, Inc, which according to Synagro's website is "the largest recycler of biosolids and other organic residuals in the United States". The total enterprise value of the transaction, including the assumption of debt, is $772 million.[7]
On June 28 2007, Carlyle announced that it would partner with Onex Corporation to buy the Allison Transmission unit from General Motors for $5.6 billion.[8]
In June 2007, Carlyle agrees to acquire HD Supply for $10.3 billion, along with Bain Capital and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (with each agreeing to buy a one-third stake in the division). Home Depot sold their wholesale construction supply business to fund a stock repurchase estimated at $40 billion
On July 2 2007, it was disclosed that the Carlyle Group was looking to buy Virgin Media UK cable business.[9] Richard Branson is the largest shareholder, and the Virgin Group own the name Virgin, and Virgin Media have the rights to use the name Virgin for 10 years.
On July 28 2007, Carlyle announced the acquisition of Applus+ from its shareholders Agbar, Unión Fenosa and Caja Madrid for an enterprise value of €1,480 million.[10]
On December 18 2007, David Rubenstein, representing the Carlyle Group, purchased the Magna Carta (one of seventeen copies) at Sotheby's Auction House in New York City. He paid the Perot Foundation $21.3 million. Mr. Rubenstein expressed his intent for it to be returned to the National Archives for display.
On May 16 2008, Booz Allen Hamilton announced that it would selling a majority stake in the US government business to The Carlyle Group for $2.54 billion. The transaction was expected to be complete July 31, 2008.[11]
On August 2008, Carlyle Group bought IRIS Unified Ag through FRS Global.
In March 2008, Carlyle Capital Corporation, established in August 2006[12] for the purpose of making investments in U.S. mortgage-backed securities, defaulted on about US$ 16.6 billion of debt as the global credit crunch brought about by the subprime mortgage crisis worsened for leveraged investors. The Guernsey-based affiliate of Carlyle was very heavily leveraged , up to 32 times by some accounts, and it expects its creditors to seize its remaining assets.[13] Tremors in the mortgage markets induced several of Carlyle's 13 lenders to make margin calls or to declare Carlyle in default on its loans.[14] In response to the forced liquidation of mortgage-backed assets caused by the Carlyle margin calls and other similar developments in credit markets, on March 11, 2008, the Federal Reserve gave Wall Street's primary dealers the right to post mortgaged-back securities as collateral for loans of up to $200 billion in higher-grade, U.S. government-backed securities. [15] On March 12, 2008, BBC News Online reported that "instead of underpinning the mortgage-backed securities market, it seems to have had the opposite effect, giving lenders an opportunity to dump the risky asset" and that Carlyle Capital Corp. "will collapse if, as expected, its lenders seize its remaining assets."[16] On March 16, 2008, Carlyle Capital announced that its Class A Shareholders had voted unanimously in favor of the Corporation filing a petition under Part XVI, Sec. 96, of the Companies Law (1994) of Guernsey[17] for a "compulsory winding up proceeding" to permit all its remaining assets to be liquidated by a court appointed liquidator.[18]
The losses to the Carlyle Group due to the collapse of Carlyle Capital is reported to be "minimal from a financial standpoint".[19]
Carlyle acquired United Defense Industries in October 1997, bringing in over 60% of Carlyle's defense business. United Defense went public on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2001 with Carlyle retaining a stock ownership position. Carlyle completed the sale of all of its United Defense stock and exited the investment in April 2004.[20] (One major United Defense program was the XM2001 Crusader self-propelled howitzer which was canceled by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in early 2002 causing United Defense stock prices to fall 27 percent.[21])
Connections between the Carlyle and the Bush family have created controversy, particularly in relation to the War on Terror and the Iraq War. George H. W. Bush and his Secretary of State James A. Baker III have at times been advisors to the group. One writer claimed that Saudi Arabian interests have given $1.4 billion to firms connected to the Bush family. Of this figure, $1.18 billion comes from contracts awarded to defense contractor Braddock, Dunn & McDonald, which Carlyle sold before George H. W. Bush became an advisor.[22] A Carlyle spokesman noted in 2003 that its 7% interest in defense industries was far less than several other Private equity firms.[23] The group has in the past had links with the Bin Laden family, although the group argues investment was relatively minor and made by relatives including a half brother to Osama Bin Laden who had "disowned" him.[24]
In February 2008, a U.S. Senate bill was introduced that would increase the regulation of nursing homes such as those run by HCR Manor Care which Carlyle purchased in December 2007.[25] Furthermore in February 2008, a bill was introduced in California that would have barred CalPERS from investing money "with private-equity firms that are partly owned by countries with poor records on human rights," which would include Carlyle because Mubadala Development is owned by part of the United Arab Emirates. The California bill was later withdrawn.[26]
In the documentary film Fahrenheit 911 Michael Moore makes nine allegations concerning the Carlyle Group, including: That the Bin Laden and Bush families were both connected to the Group but following the attacks on September 11, the bin Laden family’s investments in the Carlyle Group became an embarrassment to the Carlyle Group and the family was forced to liquidate their assets with the firm; That the Carlyle group is, in essence, the 11th largest defense contractor in the United States. Moore lists and provides evidence for the allegations on his website[27]
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