In January, Tony James, president of the Blackstone Group, met with our US editor David Snow for a wide-ranging, exclusive interview. Unsurprisingly given current industry trends, Asian private equity was one of the main topics of the conversation.
Largely unaffected by the sub-prime crisis, the Japanese leveraged finance market is open for business. The availability of cheap credit bodes well for buyouts led by private equity. Sponsorless deals on the other hand will remain the exception - despite an interesting precedent. Sharon Lim reports.
In Asia, the credit crunch has had limited impact on debt markets so far. Buyout pros and leveraged finance specialists in Hong Kong and Singapore are nevertheless bracing for tricky times. By Patricia Lee.
January brought a new twist in South Korea's KEB saga: authorities detained Lone Star's chairman John Grayken as part of their ongoing investigation into the transaction.
GSO Capital Partners, newly part of The Blackstone Group, has agreed to pay a $21 million breakup fee to Reddy Ice after credit market conditions gave GSO’s lenders cold feet.
The firm’s country head, Paul Yoo, has been sentenced to five years in prison, while Lone Star has been fined $26 million by a Korean court.
Obstacles still remain, but Europe's private equity markets are becoming more integrated. Peter Cornelius and Karlijn Juttmann of AlpInvest Partners look at the implications.
The near-term future of the leveraged buyout market presents an unfolding tale of two halves. Mid-market private equity firms will cautiously continue to acquire quality companies, while mega-fund managers will dramatically downsize their deal sizes and pursue alternative deal structures. David Snow asks LBO insiders to take the temperature of 2008.
After several record-breaking years for the new kings of capitalism, life suddenly seems less than straightforward. Andy Thomson looks at some of the likely twists and turns in store for private equity in 2008.
Hamilton ‘Tony’ James is the day-to-day leader of what has now become one of Wall Street's most powerful and admired firms – Blackstone. His tenure as president and COO of Stephen Schwarzman's creation is not the first time he has dramatically upsized a private equity operation. As head of DLJ Merchant Banking, James presided over one of the dominant private equity business of the 1990s with loyal personnel across the US, Europe and Asia. He is now duplicating that success at Blackstone, but on a much larger scale. James met recently with David Snow for a conversation about where Blackstone is today and where he intends to steer it in the coming years.