Blackstone Closes $8 Billion 'Extended Stay' Sale Ahead of IPO

Blackstone has completed its sale announced two months ago of Extended Stay America for some $8 Billion to The Lightstone Group.  Considering that Blackstone paid $2 Billion in equity and assumed another $1 Billion debt, this sounds like a decent profit even after Blackstone added more than 50% more property units to the company.

With the recent pay packages having been announced and being looked at by many with ‘shock and awe,’ it’s a good thing blackstone closed this sale ahead of the IPO next week.  It throws a potnetial wrench in evaluating the overall porfolios and cash balances, but the truth is that much of this already feels a bit like guestimates than exact math after you parcel through the prospectus.  The company has close to $80 Billion under management and it now seems as though it is involved in more business sectors than it isn’t.

Blackstone is set to come public via an IPO of its Limited Partnership units.  Here were the actual terms set for last week. 

Jon C. Ogg
June 12, 2007

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