Corporate and Mergers and Acquisitions Overview

Our corporate and mergers and acquisitions advisory operation has been an independent provider of financial and mergers and acquisitions advisory services since the firm was founded in 1985. Professionals in this area have a wide array of specialized industry knowledge and experience and provide all types of financial and mergers and acquisitions advisory services with a wide range of transaction execution capability with respect to acquisitions, mergers, joint ventures, minority investments, asset swaps, divestitures, takeover defenses and distressed sales.

The services provided also include specialized advice in various areas, including special committee assignments, exclusive sales, demutualizations and conversions, structured products and financing advice. Since 1985, our corporate and mergers and acquisitions advisory services operation has advised on transactions with a total value of more than $325 billion. Some of the clients we have recently advised include Albertsons, Comcast Corporation, Fox Entertainment Group, Inc., Kinder Morgan, Kraft Foods, Microsoft Corporation, Northern Rock plc., The Procter & Gamble Company, Reuters Group PLC, Sony Corporation and Suez S.A. In 2006, we opened an office in London to expand our corporate and mergers and acquisitions advisory service offerings beyond our U.S. base.

The success of our corporate and mergers and acquisitions advisory services has resulted from our core principles, including protecting client confidentiality, prioritizing our client's interests, avoidance of conflicts and giving each assignment senior-level attention. The 15 senior managing directors in our corporate and mergers and acquisitions advisory services operation have an average of over 20 years of experience in providing financial and mergers and acquisitions advice.

Client-Driven Rather than Deal-Driven
We are not focused on market share or being all things to all people, but rather maintain a select number of assignments. Our emphasis is on long-term relationships and always giving objective advice to our clients, even if that requires us to advise against proceeding with a transaction.

Absence of Conflicts of Interest
We are not engaged in securities underwriting, research or many of the numerous other businesses conducted by large investment banks and commercial banks, which allows us to avoid potential conflicts of interest that may arise from these activities. We believe this makes us particularly well-suited to represent boards and special committees in the increasing number of situations where they are looking to retain a financial advisor who is devoid of such conflicts.

Unique Perspectives on Value Creation
Our firm's institutional knowledge includes experience not only as a financial and strategic advisor, but also as a principal investor and major financier. Our ability to view client assignments from both advisory and investor perspectives often helps to provide unique insights into how best to maximize value while also achieving clients' objectives.

Creative Solutions for Complex Issues
Our structured finance team focuses on customized merger and acquisition solutions as well as financing structures that enable clients to meet their strategic and corporate finance objectives. Our structured finance team has been providing innovative products and solutions to clients in many industries for over 20 years.

Long-Term Strategic Planning
In addition to providing traditional investment banking services, we are focused on helping solve long-term strategic issues for our clients, often incorporating aspects of strategic consulting into advisory assignments.

Ability to Capitalize on Other Blackstone Businesses
Our corporate and mergers and acquisitions advisory operation benefits from other areas of our firm. For example, we are able to offer debt financing to facilitate transactions with the aid of our corporate debt operation. In addition, we benefit from assignments generated by our corporate private equity and real estate opportunity funds and their portfolio companies as well as opportunities generated by our firm's extensive network of business relationships.

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