After months of hype, hoopla and no small amount of controversy, the Blackstone Group went public on Friday, and with it, lost its "private equity" status.
Its shares, whose symbol is BX -- as in bucks -- was clearly a success. The offering -- priced at US$31, the high end of the expected range -- opened 18 percent higher at US$36.55 and ended trading at US$35.06
The opening was treated almost like a Hollywood premiere at the New York Stock Exchange, where television trucks from networks around the world lined up to report the offering, the biggest on Wall Street and the most high profile since Google went public in 2004.
PHOTO: AP
Blackstone chief executive Stephen Schwarzman, who has attracted much criticism in recent weeks amid the unwanted attention that the stock offering has put on the industry, was not in attendance.
But Tom Wolfe, the author of The Bonfire of the Vanities, was. Walking the floor of the exchange just before the opening, he told a CNBC reporter: "We may be witnessing the end of capitalism as we know it."
Still, the successful offering could presage a wave of followers among private equity firms. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is considering an offering, as is the Apollo Group.
The stock offering came the same day that more than a dozen Democrats introduced legislation to increase the tax on "carried interest," the performance income earned by many partnerships, including private equity firms. The tax would rise to the ordinary income tax rate of 35 percent, up from the 15 percent capital gains rate now in place. Last week, a bipartisan bill was introduced to increase taxes on firms like Blackstone. Some had speculated that the bill would kill Blackstone's offering or at least lower its valuation, but it appeared to do neither.
Blackstone's offering did not pop the way Fortress Investment Group's offering did in February. That offer surged 68 percent, to US$31, after it raised US$634 million. Those shares have fallen 20 percent since, in part on worries about the possible impact of increased taxes.
With the help of an army of underwriters, 17 in all, Blackstone sold 133.3 million common shares, or a 12.3 percent stake. The company has already sold a US$3 billion nonvoting stake to a Chinese state-owned investment company.
The firm, which started in 1985 with just US$400,000, had a market value of US$38 billion at the close of trading on Friday, giving it a higher market value than more established financial players like Bear Stearns, the investment bank.
No one will reap more from the offering than Blackstone's two founders. With a 24 percent position in the firm, Schwarzman will hold a US$7.7 billion stake and could earn up to US$677 million from the offering's proceeds. That is on top of the nearly US$400 million in compensation he took home last year.
The firm's chairman, Peter Peterson, who is retiring, will earn US$1.88 billion from the offering and will retain a 4 percent stake.
NEW MARKET: The partnership opens up India to the Dutch company, which already has a strong hold in the semiconductor market of South Korea, Taiwan and China ASML Holding NV entered into a partnership agreement with Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd aimed at ramping up India’s goal to develop domestic chip-manufacturing capabilities. The Dutch company’s technology would help power Tata Electronics’ planned 300 millimeter (mm) semiconductor foundry in Gujarat, according to a joint statement from the two companies on Saturday. The signing of a memorandum of understanding coincides with a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Netherlands, which is looking to deepen bilateral relations with New Delhi. ASML, whose top customers include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co, makes lithography machines that can print
Tokyo Electron's Taiwan unit today said in a written response that it respects the judicial process, takes the court ruling seriously and would not appeal in the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) trade secrets case. Last month, a court fined the Taiwan unit of Japan's Tokyo Electron NT$150 million (US$4.74 million) in a case involving trade secrets related to TSMC's sensitive chip technology.
ROUGH RECORDS: Bonds in Japan, as well is in New Zealand, Australia and the US, are seeing the effects of a nervy market as stock exchanges across Asia edge down A deepening slump in Japanese government bonds added fuel to the selloff in global debt markets as rising oil prices stoked inflation fears and pushed yields to multi-decade highs. Japan’s 30-year yield yesterday surged as much as 20 basis points to the highest level since the tenor’s debut in 1999, before paring some of the move. Shorter-maturity Japanese debt was also under pressure, underscored by weak demand at a sale of five-year notes that offered a record-high coupon of 2 percent. Concerns over inflation and government spending rippling through markets including the US, Australia and New Zealand are being amplified in Japan,
Wall Street is licking its chops over an unprecedented slate of massive initial public offerings (IPOs) set to arrive in the coming months, beginning with Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) next month. That is expected to be followed by artificial intelligence (AI) rivals OpenAI and Anthropic PBC. The trio of mega listings, each eyeing valuations around US$1 trillion or more, constitutes a heady period of elevated risk and reward. SpaceX is targeting an IPO that would raise up to US$80 billion — about double the funds generated from all IPOs last year. OpenAI and Anthropic are eyeing IPOs raising US$60 billion. “We’re
RSS