Carlyle Remains On Track for 2012 IPO (CG, BX, KKR, ACAS, OZM, FIG, PSP)

The Carlyle Group L.P. is still planning to be one of the top private equity initial public offerings of 2012.  We even named it as one of the Top 17 IPOs to Watch in 2012.  That charge is not due to its size… It is due to the notion that every private equity shop out there may start to value the company based upon what happens in the after-market in the weeks and months after the IPO.

Some of the private equity firms which will be watching this offering closely are The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) worth $7.4 billion, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (NYSE: KKR) worth $3.1 billion, American Capital, Ltd. (NASDAQ: ACAS) worth almost $2.5 billion, Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (NYSE: OZM) worth about $925 million, and Fortress Investment Group LLC (NYSE: FIG) worth about $665 million.  There is also the PowerShares Global Listed Private Equity (NYSE: PSP) ETF that Carlyle will ultimately become a part of when it comes public.

Carlyle is going to list on NASDAQ rather than on the NYSE and it is going to list under the ticker “CG” for its units.  No financial terms have been set for the deal.  The private equity giant has selected J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, and Credit Suisse as the listed book-runners for this IPO.

It is hard to admit that it was hard to ignore that the founders made a combined $413 million in 2011 ahead of this IPO.  The full amended filing is here.

One reason that private equity deals matter to the public right now is because of Mitt Romneys’s roots back to Bain and the current misconceptions about what private equity firms actually do.  While layoffs happen at most private equity buyout targets, many of those businesses were failing to generate profits and many may have eventually folded on their own.  Who are the largest clients of private equity firms?  Usually company and governmental pension funds.

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JON C. OGG