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About Us
In 1985, Stephen A. Schwarzman, Blackstone’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Peter G. Peterson, who retired from the firm in 2008, co-founded The Blackstone Group with a shared secretary and a balance sheet of $400,000.
Today Blackstone is a leading global alternative asset manager and provider of financial advisory services listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol BX) with total fee-earnings assets under management of $92.2 billion as of March 31, 2009. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, the companies we advise and the broader global economy. We do this through the commitment of our extraordinary people and flexible capital.
Our alternative asset management businesses include the management of:
- Corporate Private Equity funds
- Real Estate funds
- Marketable Alternative Asset Management funds, including:
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Funds of Hedge funds |
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Credit-Oriented Funds |
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Collateralized Loan Obligation Vehicles (CLOs) |
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Closed-End Mutual funds |
We also provide various financial advisory services, including:
- Corporate and Mergers and Acquisitions Advisory
- Restructuring and Reorganization Advisory
- Fund Placement Advisory
As of March 31, 2009 we had 90 senior managing directors and employed over 480 other investment and advisory professionals at our headquarters in New York and our offices in Atlanta, Beijing, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Menlo Park, Mumbai, Paris, San Francisco, and Tokyo.
Business Segments
Our business is organized into four business segments:
Corporate Private Equity
We are a world leader in private equity investing, having managed five general private equity funds as well as one specialized fund focusing on media and communications-related investments. We established our corporate private equity business in 1987. We pursue transactions throughout the world, including not only typical leveraged buyout acquisitions of seasoned companies but also transactions involving growth equity or start-up businesses in established industries, minority investments, corporate partnerships, distressed debt, structured securities and industry consolidations, in all cases in strictly friendly transactions.
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Real Estate
Since 1992 our real estate business has been a diversified, global operation, with investments in a variety of sectors and geographic locations. We have managed a total of six general real estate funds, two internationally focused real estate funds, a European focused real estate fund and a special situations real estate fund that is focused primarily on debt and non-controlling equity investments in the real estate sector. Our real estate funds have made significant investments in lodging, major urban office buildings and a variety of real estate operating companies.
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Marketable Alternative Asset Management
Our marketable alternative asset management segment includes our management of funds of hedge funds, credit-oriented funds, collateralized loan obligation vehicles (CLOs) and publicly-traded closed-end mutual funds.
- Funds of hedge funds
Our funds of hedge fund group was organized in 1990 and manages a variety of funds of hedge funds, which are investment funds that invest in third-party hedge funds. The funds of hedge funds that we manage comprise a wide range of different portfolios and investment strategies, including broadly diversified funds, strategy focused funds, opportunistic funds and client customized funds. We are one of the largest institutional funds of hedge fund managers in the world.
- GSO Capital
GSO Capital Partners LP is one of the largest credit-oriented alternative asset managers in the world and a major participant in the leveraged finance markets. GSO manages CLOs and investment funds specializing in leveraged lending, senior debt, mezzanine debt, distressed debt, and middle market private equity.
- Closed-end mutual funds
We are the investment manager of two publicly-traded closed-end mutual funds - The India Fund, Inc. and The Asia Tigers Fund, Inc. The India Fund's investment objective is long-term capital appreciation through investing primarily in the equity securities of Indian companies. The India Fund is the largest India-focused closed-end mutual fund in the United States. The Asia Tigers Fund's investment objective is long-term capital appreciation through investing primarily in the equity securities of Asian companies.
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Financial Advisory
Our financial advisory segment comprises our corporate and mergers and acquisitions advisory services, restructuring and reorganization advisory services and fund placement services for alternative investment funds.
- Corporate and Mergers and Acquisitions Advisory
Since 1985, our corporate and mergers and acquisitions advisory operation has been a trusted advisor to corporations throughout the world. Professionals in this area have a wide array of specialized industry knowledge and experience and provide all types of corporate and financial advisory services with a wide range of transaction execution capability.
- Restructuring and Reorganization Advisory
Our restructuring and reorganization advisory operation is one of the leading advisers to companies and creditors in restructurings and bankruptcies. Since 1991, we have advised on over 235 distressed and/or restructuring situations, both in and out of bankruptcy proceedings, involving over $975 billion of total liabilities.
- Fund Placement Advisory Group
The Park Hill Group is our fund placement business. Since its inception in 2005, the Park Hill Group has served as a placement agent to funds that raised in total $104.2 billion for 65 corporate private equity, real estate, venture capital and hedge funds.
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