Blackstone’s success can be traced to our strong relationships with many of the world’s leading institutional investors.  A significant number of our Limited Partners have invested with us for more than ten years and two-thirds have allocated capital to more than one of our funds.  Since the firm’s inception, our performance has placed us among the leaders of our peer group.  We are proud of our track record and work hard to earn our investors’ confidence.

 

Alignment

A distinguishing strength of Blackstone’s approach is the close alignment between the interests of our Limited Partners and those of the firm.  To ensure that our interests are always aligned with those of our clients, we have committed significant amounts of the firm’s capital and our employees’ own funds to our transactions.  As of June 30, 2009, the firm, our Senior Managing Directors and other professionals have invested or committed $7 billion in Blackstone investment funds.

 

Partnership

The deep and enduring partnerships we have formed with our investors are at the foundation of Blackstone’s corporate culture.  We consider ourselves to be their long-term partners in achieving investment goals – we can only be successful if our Limited Partners are successful.  Reflecting our partnership commitment, 88% of our investors have reinvested in successive Blackstone funds.

 

Value

Our tireless drive to create lasting value is a common thread running through Blackstone’s investment businesses, including our Private Equity, Real Estate, Funds of Hedge Funds and Credit operations.  This approach entails a global search for appropriate investments, rigorous due diligence, pricing discipline, operational value creation and prudent management of our Limited Partners’ assets.

 

Trust

At Blackstone, we value the trust our Limited Partners have placed in us.  We continually manage our business to preserve the assets in our care and to protect the interests of our Limited Partners.  This has been Blackstone’s bedrock principle from day one.

 

Transparency

Our commitment to transparency ensures that Limited Partners are fully informed of Blackstone’s activities.  As a public company all of our financials are publicly accessible and we distribute Quarterly and Annual Reports to all Limited Partners, as well as descriptions of all transactions.  Senior management holds regular conference calls with Limited Partners to discuss portfolios, provide insight on market trends and address other key issues.  Our dedicated investor relations team is always available to provide assistance and answer questions.  Most of our investment funds provide a secure, password-protected website for Limited Partner Reporting.  We are enhancing our systems to bring remaining funds online in the near future.