The Blackstone Group, a giant private equity fund, has announced a partial US stock market flotation to raise $4 billion. This is according to documents filed yesterday with US regulators.
The move marks the first step into the world of publicly traded and regulated stocks for a company at the heart of the boom in private equity deals.
Blackstone said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange that it intended to offer 'limited partner interests' as part of the initial public offering (IPO) in which it hoped to raise $4 billion.
Blackstone was founded with $400,000 in 1985 by Peter Peterson, a former White House aide and ex-chief executive of Lehman Brothers, and Stephen Schwarzman, a former Lehman Brothers mergers and acquisitions specialist.
Since then, it has mushroomed into a global firm and raised over $64 billion in investments, a hefty chunk of which have targeted private equity deals, according to Blackstone's website.
One of its most recent deals saw Blackstone win a $39 billion bid to take over the largest US office management firm, Equity Office Properties Trust (EOPT), in February.
