Blackstone to Launch Blackstone Altius Advisors, an Asia-Focused, Event-Driven Investment Business
New York/Hong Kong: May 13, 2008: The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) today announced that Aaron Nieman will be launching Blackstone Altius Advisors, a new event-driven strategy focusing on opportunities in the Asia Pacific region. A global, highly experienced investment team will be headquartered in Hong Kong, with additional professionals based in Tokyo, Mumbai, and New York.
Mr. Nieman, a Senior Managing Director joined Blackstone from S.A.C. Capital Management, where he was a Managing Director in the Canvas Capital Management division. At S.A.C., Mr. Nieman was instrumental in creating a successful investment team responsible for merger arbitrage and event-driven investments in the Asia Pacific region. Before that, Mr. Nieman was largely responsible for building Lehman Brothers’ Tokyo-based Global Trading Strategies Division (formerly known as the Risk Arbitrage Division), focusing on Asia Pacific investments. Mr. Nieman began his career at Lehman Brothers in New York.
Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman, CEO and Co-founder of the Blackstone Group, said, “Aaron has a superb history of developing teams and investing in Asia. He will add greater depth and intellectual capital to Blackstone’s wide range of alternative investment businesses, and we are delighted that he has chosen to join us.”
Antony Leung, Chairman, Blackstone Greater China, added, “As Blackstone continues to aggressively seek opportunities within Asia, Aaron and his team will provide additional investment capability that will bolster our presence in the region.”
“Blackstone has a superior global alternative investment platform. It also employs some of the best professionals in the industry. The synergies that exist within Blackstone’s various businesses will provide us with a significant advantage investing in the Asia Pacific markets,” said Aaron Nieman, Senior Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of Altius Advisors.
Mr. Nieman has recruited an experienced and talented team of investment professionals to Altius, including Christopher Pesce as Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Pesce was formerly Global Head of Prime Brokerage at Bank of America and, before that, with Goldman Sachs both in New York and Hong Kong.
In addition to Blackstone Altius Advisors, Blackstone’s other businesses in Asia include its corporate private equity fund (Blackstone Capital Partners), its real estate opportunity fund (Blackstone Real Estate Partners), its fund of hedge funds business and two closed-end mutual funds (The India Fund and The Asia Tigers Fund).
Contact:
New York
Peter Rose
Sophia Harrison
[email protected]
[email protected]
+1 212 583 5000
London
John Ford
Helen Winning
[email protected]
[email protected]
44 20 7451 4000