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Blackstone CEO set to gain US$450 million from stock

Blackstone Group chief executive Stephen Schwarzman stands to receive US$450 million from a partial stock market listing of the private equity firm he co-founded just 12 years ago, Blackstone revealed on Monday.

The private equity giant said in a securities filing that Schwarzman, who is already a billionaire, will be awarded at least US$449.5 million as part of Blackstone's initial public offering (IPO), which it plans to launch within weeks.

The firm's other co-founder, Peter Peterson, will pocket a paper gain of US$1.88 billion, the filing disclosed.

The notification of the awards marks one of the first times Blackstone has had to reveal public details about its co-founders generous benefits.

To put the US$450 million in a corporate context, the top earning US CEOs of the biggest US companies were compensated on average US$15.2 million last year, Forbes magazine said last month.

Forbes ranked Schwarzman as the world's 292nd richest person with a net worth last year of US$2.5 billion.

The IPO marked the initial step into the world of publicly traded and regulated stocks for a company that has closely guarded its secrecy, yet been a major player in a flurry of big corporate deals.

Blackstone's foray into the stock market was unusual for private equity groups, which prefer to keep their financial and strategic information confidential.

The hundreds of millions of dollars both Schwarzman, 60, and Peterson, 80, stand to receive will not be annual salaries, but reflect payments they will be granted in return for surrendering some of their ownership stakes in Blackstone.

Schwarzman's annual salary following the IPO will be set at US$350,000, after the almost US$400 million he received last year, the filing disclosed.

However, he will still own about 23 percent of Blackstone after its public offering.
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