Blackstone IPO Terms Set

The Blackstone Group L.P. has set its IPO terms for its 133,333,334 million limited partnership units in an initial range of $29.00 to $31.00 per unit.  These are units rather than ‘shares’ because of the limited partner structure.  Its units will trade under the ticker "BX"on the New York Stock Exchange.  This also sets the final terms with the People’s Republic of China’s "State Investment Company" prior $3 billion stake of non-voting common units at a purchase price per common unit equal to 95.5% of the initial public offering price in this offering. The number of non-voting common units purchased by the State Investment Company will be reduced if necessary so that its equity interest in Blackstone remains under 10%.

A 20 million unit overallotment has been granted to underwriters, and at the high-end of the offering it would generate a $4.753+ Billion offering.  Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are the lead underwriters with co-managers listed as Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Lehman Brothers, and Deutsche Bank.  This private equity and public equity manager has rapidly grown in recent years, as you can tell by its assets under management: $13.3 Billion in 2000, $27.0 Billion in 2003, $69.5 Billion in 2006, and $88.37 Billion as of current assets under management as of May 1, 2007.

Its 2006 revenues were $1.12 Billion plus gains of $7.587 Billion, and net income was listed as $2.266 Billion for the year.  After this offering and based on the mid-point pricing of $30.00 Blackstone is indicated to have a market capitalization in excess of $32.5 Billion.

As far as some size differences, you can see Blackstone will be the horse of the public private equity, hedge fund, and alternative investment vehicles in the US: Fortress Investment Group, LLC (FIG-NYSE) $11.1 Billion market cap; American Capital Strategies (ACAS-NASDAQ) $7.8 Billion market cap; Allied Capital Corp. (ALD-NYSE) $4.9 Billion market cap.  Franklin Resources (BEN-NYSE) has perhaps the highest market cap in mutual fund advisory and asset management of the public companies in its sector with a $34 Billion market cap, with traditional assets under management stated as $601 Billion.

Jon C. Ogg
June 4, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.