Blackstone’s units will begin trading in New York on Friday after it became on Thursday the first large US private equity group to sell a stake to the public, raising $7.7bn after pricing its listing at $31 a unit, the top of its price range, amid strong demand from overseas investors. Steve Schwarzman and Pete Peterson, who founded Blackstone with $400,000 in 1985, will receive a total of $2.6bn from a part-sale of their stakes in the listing, which will value the company at $33.6bn. The flotation of just over 10 per cent of the firm will be boosted by the sale of 10 per cent more in non-voting units to China’s new foreign exchange agency for $3bn.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Friday, June 22nd, 2007 at 5:53 and is filed under Capital markets, Private equity. Tagged with blackstone. Edit this entry.