I’m not participating after reading the WSJ article on Schwartzman (sp?) earlier this week. Also, the WSJ article yesterday detailing why 17 underwriters are involved reminds me of the dot com mess where analysts wouldn’t tell the truth for fear of retribution.

Buying into a private equity IPO strikes me as one of the worst investments one could make right now…the market is already flooded with liquidity, and they are selling because they think the market is frothy. A professional investor doesn’t sell $2 for $1 the desire for a liquidity event and tradeable market notwithstanding.

Stan

Obviously, an initial surge is not uncommon, and some upside is usually priced in by the underwriters. That said, a surge simply means the initial sellers left money on the table…I wouldn’t count on it…Blackstone isn’t likely to leave large sums on the table.

Stan

I shorted FIG (Fortress) for the same reason. Smart money sold out enormously on the IPO; resulting in a levered and opaque shell of something or who knows what?

It paid off today and I closed out—there is some talk of changing tax rules of these private equity to be equivalent to ordinary corporations.

Also think: Sam Zell selling out EOP, and his web ditty, “Capital is falling on my head.”

Blackstone seems to be the opposite of Google.

Google has hypernerds and an impossible-to-replicate-or-overcome product. And their advantages keep on compounding: more money, more revenue, and more alpha geeks to keep their algorithms even better than the next. Read the latest NYT article about their technology to see how much damn work they put in to The Google. Contrary to glib commentators, this is not at all something easy to replicate in a garage.

What advantages will post-IPO Blackstone have now?

They were financially naive and left money on the table. You think Blackstone will be the same?

(PS: I get Blackrock confused with Blackstone frequently! Both are NYC financial something or other companies, but different.)

I haven’t read the Blackstone S-1 filing, but it seems to me that when a company that makes money by taking corporations private wants to take *itself* public, instead of floating their private subsidiaries, watch out!! Clearly someone is headed for the exits here.

How are you supposed to value Blackstone’s internal holdings when they are a hodgepodge of “privatized” companies, hedge funds, debt obligations and more.

Does BX have revenue per se? Profits? Dividends? Does it extract the profit of all the subsidiaries that it owns, partially or fully? Will it report them in detail?

It’s almost like creating a mutual fund of itself, minus the transparency of having a market-determined value of what the fund owns. Seems fishy. Especially given that insiders are cashing out some nontrivial holdings directly in the IPO.