The Blackstone Group Prices $4.133 Billion Initial Public Offering
New York, New York, June 21, 2007—Blackstone announced today that the initial public offering of 133,333,334 common units representing limited partner interests in The Blackstone Group L.P. has been priced at $31.00 per common unit. The common units are expected to begin trading tomorrow, June 22, 2007, on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “BX.” The Blackstone Group has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 20,000,000 additional common units at the public offering price less underwriting discounts.
Blackstone intends to use a portion of the proceeds from the initial public offering and the concurrent sale of $3 billion of non-voting common units to an investment vehicle established by the People’s Republic of China with respect to its foreign exchange reserve to purchase interests in its business from its existing owners, to repay short-term borrowings, to provide capital to invest in its existing businesses and to expand into complementary new businesses and for other general corporate purposes.
Morgan Stanley and Citi are the global coordinators of the offering and representatives of the underwriters and, together with Merrill Lynch & Co., Credit Suisse, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank Securities, joint book-running managers of the offering.
The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the final prospectus, when available, may be obtained by contacting Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, 180 Varick Street, New York, New York 10014, attention: Prospectus Department, or by e-mailing [email protected], or Citi, Brooklyn Army Terminal, 140 58th Street, 8th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11220 (tel: 718-765-6732; fax: 718-765-6734). The final prospectus, when available, also may be on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at http://www.sec.gov.
About The Blackstone Group
The Blackstone Group is a leading global alternative asset manager and provider of financial advisory services. Its alternative asset management businesses include the management of corporate private equity funds, real estate opportunity funds, funds of hedge funds, mezzanine funds, senior debt funds, proprietary hedge funds and closed-end mutual funds. The Blackstone Group also provides various financial advisory services, including mergers and acquisitions advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement services.