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Bloomberg – Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest private-equity firm, fell to a record low in New York trading this week on concern that a rebound in leveraged buyouts will lag behind any economic recovery.
“Given the economic outlook and pressure on asset values, even on existing investments, it’s going to be a while before they have a chance to come back,” said Robert Lee, an analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc. in New York. “It’s hard for investors to see through that valley.”
After announcing about $169 billion of buyouts in 2006 and 2007, New York-based Blackstone has since completed $9.2 billion of deals. An absence of financing for new acquisitions and an inability to sell current holdings have idled the firm and competitors such as KKR & Co. and Carlyle Group LP. Investors say deal won’t resume until after the economy starts to grow and banks can rebuild capital depleted by losses on mortgage-backed securities and previous LBO loans.
Blackstone, run by Chairman Stephen Schwarzman, probably will report a loss tomorrow of 31 cents a share, its third in the past four quarters, according to the average estimate of seven analysts in a Bloomberg survey. The company had a profit, excluding some costs, of 8 cents a share in the same quarter a year earlier.
Of the nine analysts who rate Blackstone shares, six have ratings equivalent to hold, including Lee. One analyst, Barclays Capital’s Roger Freeman, suggests selling the stock. Two recommend clients buy the shares.
Blackstone dropped below $4 a share for the first time on Feb. 23, closing at $3.89, almost 90 percent less than its $31 initial public offering price in June 2007. The stock declined 17 cents to $4.12 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
Wall Street Journal - If you thought the collapse of one of the biggest leveraged buyouts in history would be devastating for merger-arbitrage hedge funds, you’d be right. But pure merger arbitragers weren’t the only hedge funds hurt.
The $41 billion buyout of Canadian telephone company BCE Inc. (BCE) has been officially nixed, sending the stock down to its lowest levels in six years. Even investors who don’t typically play merger deals have gotten hurt.
That’s because starting in mid-September, the spread between the deal price and BCE’s share price had widened considerably, thanks to what turned out to be legitimate
Forbes – In an op-ed in the Financial Times on Monday , I described the unraveling and demise of the shadow banking system that started with non-bank mortgage lenders, structured investment vehicles (SIVs) and conduits, major independent monoline broker dealers and money market funds. I then argued that the next leg of this unraveling would be hedge funds and private equity firms and their reckless leveraged buyouts (LBOs).
Let me now discuss in more detail this unraveling of parts of the hedge fund industry.
First, note that too much of the shadow banking system was about "Schmalpha" rather than "Alpha" (i.e. the returns that fund managers and asset managers–with their ridiculously high management fees of 2% or more–were getting by parting investors from a good chunk of their assets, rather than by superior absolute returns). In fact, the hedge-fund math of "2/20" was, most of the time, 2% for the fund managers and not 20% (sometimes single digit returns and, this year, actual negative ones) for investors. This scam is now unraveling.
Reuters – Private equity firm Blackstone Group LP’s chief operating officer said on Tuesday that the limit on bank financing for leveraged buyouts was about $5 billion.
But COO Tony James said there were multiple opportunities to invest despite the market turmoil and the limit on financing, adding the company has had a very active 12 months, investing $8.7 billion in 27 deals since the credit meltdown.
"People say you can’t do leveraged buyouts," said James. "That’s not correct. We are getting bank financing for LBOs (leveraged buyouts), but we’re not getting bank financing for deals over about $5 billion in size."
He said the current volatile market conditions were ideal times for Blackstone to invest.
"One could be forgiven for thinking this is a hostile environment for Blackstone," said James, speaking at a Lehman Brothers conference that was webcast. "I don’t agree at all. I think it’s a fantastic environment. Turmoil, discontinuity in the market and scarce capital are absolutely ideal forces for our businesses."
Blackstone has taken part in some of the largest leveraged buyouts ever, such as the $23 billion purchase of Equity Office Properties Trust, but has also done numerous smaller buyouts.
New York Times Blogs – Jack Nash, a former chairman of Oppenheimer & Company who helped pioneer the modern hedge fund business, died July 30 in Manhattan. He was 79.
He died at Mount Sinai Medical Center after a long illness, according to his family.
Mr. Nash, who fled Nazi Germany with his family at the age of 12, joined Oppenheimer as a trainee in 1951 when it was still a small Wall Street investment firm. He left briefly to work for his father’s textile business, but returned to the firm in 1954.
Mr. Nash became the company’s president in 1974, and its chairman in 1979.
At Oppenheimer Mr. Nash met Leon Levy, his longtime business partner. They specialized in leveraged buyouts and transformed the company into one of the world’s largest mutual fund businesses.
Bloomberg – Just when American International Group Inc. shareholders figured things couldn’t get worse at the world’s largest insurer, profit from the company’s private equity and hedge fund investments is evaporating.
Earnings from so-called alternative holdings were probably close to zero in the second quarter, after soaring 77 percent to $1.02 billion a year earlier, said Citigroup Inc. analyst Joshua Shanker.
The drop follows the worst first half for hedge funds in almost two decades and a 73 percent decline in the value of announced leveraged buyouts, according to data compiled by Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc. and Bloomberg.
