Private equity giant Blackstone is to float more than 133 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange in an initial public offering that could raise more than $4 billion.
Blackstone Group said shares in the IPO would be priced between $29 and $31 and would represent 12.3% of the firm's capital.
The private equity group also confirmed that it had sealed a deal to sell the Chinese government the equivalent of $3 billion worth of Blackstone shares, without voting rights, at a unit price of 95.5% of the final IPO price.
An additional 20 million shares will be floated if demand is strong enough, raising a total of $4.75 billion in the listing. With the IPO and the Chinese sale combined, Blackstone said it could raise between $6.86 billion and $7.75 billion.
The IPO 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.
