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The deal represents a bet on energy transition, as power utilities, grid operators and renewable energy developers turn to simulation software to fine-tune use of production capacity and maximize efficiencies. Vista, Blackstone, Riverside and Energy Exemplar declined to comment. Energy Exemplar has grown at an annual compound rate of 30% since 2018 under Riverside's ownership, the sources said. Blackstone is investing in Energy Exemplar through its energy transition arm, which is in the process of raising a new fund. Its previous investments include Transmission Developers, solar mounting firm Esdec, environmental engineering firm Geosyntec, environmental commodity exchange Xpansiv, and renewable energy firm Invenergy.

Persons: Blackstone, Anirban Sen, Edwina Gibbs Organizations: Blackstone Group, REUTERS, Blackstone, Vista Equity Partners, Australia's, . Energy, Riverside Company, Blackstone Energy, Partners, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, The, Developers, Foundation, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S, Vista, Blackstone, Riverside, North Adelaide, The New York, New York

☆ Employees ‘didn’t work as hard’ when remote during Covid, billionaire CEO says
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —Private-equity billionaire Stephen Schwarzman doesn’t think office workers worked hard enough during Covid-19. “It was actually more profitable for them to stay home because one, they didn’t work as hard, regardless of what they told you. For example, about 58% of Manhattan office workers were at their workplace on an average weekday in late August and September, according to a survey from the Partnership for New York City. Just 12% of Manhattan office workers are in the office full time, according to that survey. Schwarzman, the Blackstone CEO, estimated that 20% of US office buildings are vacant and another 20% are leased but empty.

Persons: Stephen Schwarzman doesn’t, they, Slack, Blackstone, ” Schwarzman, Jamie Dimon, ” DImon, ” Dimon, “ Organizations: New, New York CNN —, Blackstone, “ Davos, Commonwealth Fund, Future Investment, JPMorgan, Partnership Locations: New York, Saudi Arabia, Manhattan, New York City

☆ Wall Street warning: Ray Dalio, Jamie Dimon, Larry Fink issue grim outlooks for the global economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-25 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Ray Dalio, Jamie Dimon, David Solomon, Larry Fink, and Steve Schwarzman all shared their views. They tackled topics such as inflation, recession, the Israel-Hamas war, and commercial real estate. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman, and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio all shared their views. They touched on everything from the Israel-Hamas conflict and pressures on commercial real estate to inflation, interest rates, fiscal and monetary policies, and the risk of recession. David SolomonThe Goldman Sachs chief recalled the boom in mergers and acquisitions coming out of the pandemic, as massive amounts of fiscal stimulus and rock-bottom interest rates fueled "extreme confidence."

Persons: Ray Dalio, Jamie Dimon, David Solomon, Larry Fink, Steve Schwarzman, —, Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, Dalio, Dimon, Fayez Nureldine, David Solomon The Goldman Sachs, that's, Solomon, Fink, aren't, he's, we'll, Schwarzman Organizations: Service, Future Investment Initiative, Tuesday, JPMorgan, BlackRock, Bridgewater Associates, Getty Locations: Saudi Arabia, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, Riyadh, AFP

A Saudi man's reflection is seen in mirror glass at the Future Investment Initiative conference, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, October 25, 2022. Geopolitical tensions heightened by the Middle East conflict pose the biggest threat to the world economy, World Bank President Ajay Banga said. The conflict could upset the stability of the Middle East just as regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia pours hundreds of billions of dollars into a vast economic transformation plan. Saudi Arabia is putting U.S.-backed plans to normalise ties with Israel on ice, two sources familiar with Riyadh's thinking said, signalling a rapid rethinking of its foreign policy priorities as war rages between Israel and Hamas. The last year has seen Saudi Arabia spend billions on companies, from sports to gaming to aviation.

Persons: Ahmed Yosri, Ajay Banga, Banga, Laurence Fink, Fink, Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, JPMorgan's, Jamie Dimon, Jane Fraser, Ray Dalio, Dalio, Noel Quinn, Bill Winters, Barack Obama, Yasser al, Salomon, Hess, Stephen Schwarzman, Schwarzman, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Joe Biden's, Richard Attias, Rosario, Amanda Cooper, Alun John, Michael Georgy, Anousha, John O'Donnell, Susan Fenton Organizations: Future Investment Initiative, REUTERS, Rights, Saudi Arabia's, Hamas, BlackRock, Bridgewater Associates, HSBC, Former U.S, U.S, Saudi Telecom Corp, Telefonica, Investment Fund, Chevron, Blackstone Group, Investment Initiative, Saudi, FII, Reuters, Jorgelina, Thomson Locations: Saudi, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Rights RIYADH, Israel, Davos, Swiss, Gaza, Europe, Asia, London

☆ Blackstone and Airbnb set to join S&P 500; shares climb
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Signage is seen outside the Blackstone Group headquarters in New York City, U.S., January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon Acquire Licensing RightsSept 1 (Reuters) - Shares of Blackstone (BX.N) and Airbnb (ABNB.O) rallied in extended trade on Friday after S&P Dow Jones Indices said the two companies would join the S&P 500 (.SPX) index. Blackstone was up 4.1%, while Airbnb jumped 5% after S&P Dow Jones Indices said the companies would replace Lincoln National Corp (LNC.N) and Newell Brands Inc (NWL.O) before the start of trading on Sept. 18. Lincoln National dipped 0.7% and Newell Brands was last unchanged. Reporting by Noel Randewich; editing by Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Dow, Blackstone, Airbnb, Newell Brands, Noel Randewich, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: Blackstone Group, REUTERS, Blackstone, Dow Jones, Lincoln National Corp, Newell Brands Inc, Lincoln National, Newell, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S

REUTERS/Jeenah Moon/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsAug 24 (Reuters) - Blackstone's (BX.N) newly established China unit has received regulatory approval to raise funds that will be invested overseas, joining other global asset managers in seeking to tap Chinese investor demand for foreign assets. Blackstone registered a fund management unit with the Asset Management Association of China under the qualified domestic limited partnership (QDLP) programme, a notice from the regulator showed. The unit, which was established in March, has seven full time employees, including five fund professionals, the notice said. The quota-based QDLP programme, first launched in 2012, allows foreign and domestic fund managers to raise money from Chinese high-net worth individuals and institutions which is then fed into offshore funds. The QDLP programme is generally more popular when the yuan is weaker.

Persons: Blackstone, Roxanne Liu, Selena Li, Edwina Gibbs Organizations: Blackstone Group, REUTERS, Asset Management Association of China, U.S, KKR KKR.N, BlackRock BLK.N, Investment, Thornburg Investment Management, Thomson Locations: New York City, U.S, China, Hong Kong, Shanghai

☆ Lucasfilm shutters its Singapore studio after nearly 2 decades in the country amid Disney's plan to save $5.5 billion this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Kai Xiang Teo | Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Lucasfilm is shutting down its Singapore operations after nearly 20 years in the country. The shuttering comes amid Disney's push to save $5.5 billion in costs this year. Lucasfilm Singapore was the company's first international studio, located in its Star Wars-inspired "Sandcrawler" office. Lucasfilm is shutting down its Singapore operations after nearly two decades, the city-state's government said Tuesday. "Over the next several months, ILM will be consolidating its global footprint and winding down its Singapore studio due to economic factors affecting the industry," Disney said in a statement to the AFP.

Persons: Disney, Bob Iger, George Lucas Organizations: Lucasfilm, Lucasfilm Singapore, Morning, ILM, Force, AFP, Infocomm Media Development Authority, Disney, Channel News Asia, Cartoon Network, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Blackstone Group Locations: Singapore

☆ Illegal child labor on the rise with nationwide violations found, Labor Department says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-30 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

JBS has said that they do not tolerate child labor and that they would stop using PSSI at every location where the child labor violations were alleged to have occurred. In addition, the Wage and Hour Division of the Labor Department is currently pursuing more than 700 open child labor cases. Officials at the Labor Department emphasized in a press call this week that the increase in child labor violation findings is partially due to “significantly enhanced child labor enforcement efforts” in recent months. The fight to weaken child labor lawsThe Department of Labor on Thursday said its interagency task force on child labor has begun cross-training with other governmental agencies like Health and Human Services and the Office of Refugee Resettlement to identify and report possible incidences of child labor exploitation. But at the same time that violations of child labor protections are rising, states across the country are introducing legislation to weaken child labor laws.

Persons: it’s, ”, Labor Julie Su, Jordan Barab, Obama, Barab, JBS, Cargill, ” PSSI, PSSI, “, That’s, DOL, Karen Garnett, Tiffanie Boyd, there’s, David Weil, Weil, Jaehoon, Jay, Chang, ” McDonald’s, they’re, Biden, Sen, Rich Draheim, “ That’s Organizations: New, New York CNN, Labor Department, Packers Sanitation Services Inc, Cargill, JBS, Department of Labor, Labor, Occupational Safety, Health Administration, PSSI, Blackstone Group, CNN, McDonald’s, of, “ Employers, Heller School for Social Policy, Management, Brandeis University, Hyundai, Kia, Health, Human Services, Refugee Resettlement, US Department of Agriculture, Economic, Institute, Minnesota, Republican Locations: New York, Nebraska, JBS USA, Minnesota, Louisiana, Texas, Louisville , Kentucky, McDonald’s, United States, DOL, Alabama, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Missouri , Ohio, South Dakota, Arkansas, Iowa, America

☆ Exclusive: Blackstone's Horizon head Scott Bommer to leave company
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Svea Herbst-Bayliss | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Bommer, a former hedge fund manager, joined Blackstone in 2021 as a senior managing director when the company was overhauling its $81 billion Blackstone Alternative Asset Management hedge fund unit known as BAAM. The Blackstone Horizon platform will now be run by an investment committee led by BAAM Global Head Joe Dowling, the sources said. Before coming to Blackstone, Bommer ran hedge fund SAB Capital for 17 years investing in stocks, debt and mortgages. Bommer was the first big hire brought in by Dowling, after he joined Blackstone in early 2021 to help overhaul the hedge fund unit. Last year Tiger Global Management lost 56% while Whale Rock Capital Management ended with a 43% loss, Reuters reported previously.

Persons: Blackstone, Scott Bommer, Joe Dowling, Bommer, Dowling, Svea Herbst, Bayliss, Diane Craft, David Gregorio Our Organizations: YORK, Blackstone, Management, BAAM Global, SAB Capital, Tiger Global Management, Whale Rock Capital Management, Reuters, Svea, Thomson

☆ The Moral Crisis of America’s Doctors
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Eyal Press | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +6 min

Dean’s essay caught my eye, too, because I spent much of the previous few years reporting on moral injury, interviewing workers in menial occupations whose jobs were ethically compromising. There are, of course, plenty of doctors who like what they do and feel no need to speak out. But more and more doctors are coming to believe that the pandemic merely worsened the strain on a health care system that was already failing because it prioritizes profits over patient care. They are noticing how the emphasis on the bottom line routinely puts them in moral binds, and young doctors in particular are contemplating how to resist. They’re the instruments of betrayal.”Not long ago, I spoke to an emergency physician, whom I’ll call A., about her experience.

Persons: roustabouts, I’d, “, Will, Ming Lin, Lin, Robert McNamara, ” Dean, Jonathan Shay, ”, couldn’t, she’d Organizations: St, Joseph Medical Center, Blackstone Group, Temple University Locations: Bellingham, Wash, Philadelphia, United States

☆ Here's how much it pays to control the fortunes of America's wealthiest people — and why it's escalating
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Michelle Abrego | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Demand for access to private equity opportunities has contributed to big pay packages. While family offices have propped up across the globe, they are an American invention. J.P. Morgan is credited for launching the House of Morgan in the 1830s to manage family offices, and J.D. That means US family offices are often more mature and institutionalized than in other regions. Family offices need to be creative and competitive with the bonuses and other compensation perks of the private equity industry.

Persons: didn't, Morgan, Rockefeller, Jeff Bazos, Elon Musk, Jared Brichall Organizations: KPMG, Agreus, Waltons, Elon Locations: CIOs, Asia, Singapore, Europe, Middle East, Australia

☆ Stephen Schwarzman says Blackstone has dumped office investments. Another corner of the firm kept lending billions.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Blackstone Mortgage Trust's $8.2 billion portfolio of office loans leaves it exposed to the sector. The Blackstone-managed firm issued about $3.3 billion of US office loans since the pandemic began. Even as clouds began to gather, Blackstone Mortgage Trust continued to lend to the office sector. In addition to managing the mortgage trust, Blackstone is among its largest shareholders. A Washington office complex shows how far values have fallenThere are ongoing issues, however, in Blackstone Mortgage Trust's portfolio.

☆ A 26-year-old developer whose firm owns 40 acres of land in Richmond explains why he's betting on the capital of Virginia — and why he would personally invest in real estate there
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Meanwhile, "the DC market was considerably faster-moving, especially the condominium market." So I developed single-family homes on those myself and it turned out pretty successful." Thakker bought land in Richmond in 2020 and developed three, single-family homes, including the one pictured, on the lot. Across their three major projects in Richmond, Dorado has acquired 40 acres of land, which is equivalent to over 40 football fields. The interior of one of the single-family homes Thakker built and sold in Richmond.

☆ Sam Zell, 81, Tycoon Whose Big Newspaper Venture Went Bust, Dies
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Robert D. Mcfadden | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Nevertheless, in 2007, the Blackstone Group bought Mr. Zell’s firm — then known as Equity Office Properties Trust — for $39 billion. A Deal Comes With DebtLike many newspapers, the Tribune properties were hemorrhaging advertising revenues and readers to the internet. The company had been on the auction block for months when Mr. Zell — insisting that his interests were purely economic, not editorial — offered $34 a share in a complex transaction to take the company private under an employee stock-ownership plan. In that highly leveraged buyout, the debt was to be paid off almost entirely by cash generated by the company’s continuing operations. The new corporation was exempt from federal income taxes, and the debt was reduced by the sale of Newsday, the Cubs and Wrigley Field.

☆ This Tool Pushes the Limits of Outdoor Cooking
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Steven Raichlen | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

In the early 2000s, Roger Dahle attended an outdoor pancake breakfast cooked on a commercial flattop at his local Rotary Club, a civic organization, in Utah. “I love cooking breakfast outdoors, but you couldn’t buy an outdoor griddle for home use,” Mr. Dahle said. He experimented with a variety of cooking surfaces, settling on the same material used in woks: carbon steel. He mounted it on a cart like a gas grill, with propane to fire the burners, and named it Blackstone, after a favorite local restaurant. “People originally bought the Blackstone to cook breakfast,” Mr. Dahle said.

☆ LSEG affirms 2023 targets, seeks shareholder nod for buyback
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 27 (Reuters) - London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG.L) on Thursday reaffirmed financial targets for the year before it seeks shareholder approval for a previously announced buyback of shares from the Blackstone/Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO) consortium. LSEG bought data and analytics company Refinitiv for $27 billion from the consortium in January 2021. LSEG said that first-quarter income from data and analytics rose 14.6% year on year to 1.3 billion pounds. Total income excluding recoveries rose 14.6% to 2 billion pounds, 1% ahead of consensus according to Jefferies research. "In data & analytics, we saw a further acceleration in annual subscription value (ASV) growth, reflecting the investments we have made in our services and stronger customer engagement," Schwimmer said.

☆ Only the big will crack the $1 trln LBO code
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Jonathan Guilford | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Lenders will only tiptoe back, meaning deals need the big checks and extra elbow grease in credit markets that favor the largest private equity firms. Private equity firms depend on borrowed money to reduce how much of their own they use in any single deal and to magnify returns as a percentage of their initial investment. Imagine a private equity firm acquires a company for $1 billion, then flips it five years later for $1.5 billion. Though the private equity industry is awash in so-called dry powder, fundraising is increasingly tilting to the largest fund managers. Buyout firms are apt to keep their plans more conservative to garner higher ratings – meaning, again, less leverage and more upfront cash.

☆ The UFC-WWE deal could be the boost the M&A market needs to get back into gear
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Citigroup, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America were among the banks advising on the deal. Earlier this year, some pegged the merger market getting back into the swing of things by mid-year. When you think about it, the WWE-UFC deal might be the best way to get the market going again. Fight for media rights: Both UFC and WWE have streaming deals with ESPN and NBCUniversal's Peacock, respectively. The crypto community is now pitching itself as playing a key role in AI development thanks to its decentralized nature.

☆ Big real estate landlords are finally starting to decarbonize, creating an $18 trillion market that this Blackstone portfolio company plans to profit from at every turn
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The Blackstone portfolio company Legence wants to be a one-stop shop for landlords. A Real Estate Board of New York study found that the total penalties could top $213 million. Its ICS became the strategic planner, its CMTA, which designed the first net-zero school in the United States, designed the upgrades, and its Gilbert Mechanical installed the new heating, cooling, ventilation, and lighting hardware. How to do itIt may still be a challenge to coordinate decarbonization processes, which don't come naturally to large-scale real-estate operators, Boland said. Legence plans to grow the business's geographic scope and increase its depth in current markets, including Colorado and California, Sprau said.

Organizations: & $

☆ How universities became giant piggy banks for hedge-fund billionaires
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Catherine Liu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

The move also marked the beginning of a new way to manage endowment funds. The arrangement has been a boon for the hedge-fund managers who received university endowment cash, but the benefits for the schools are trickier to parse. As Eaton put it in his book, universities directed funds to "wherever those allocations would generate the largest further investment returns." Eaton estimated in 2017 that tax breaks for university endowments cost federal coffers up to $19 billion a year. As the influence of billionaires and hedge-fund managers has grown, universities have moved further away from their ultimate goal: educating people.

☆ LSE Group targets Blackstone/Thomson Reuters stake buyback as raises outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"In addition to our existing share buyback, we are today announcing plans to seek shareholder approval for a buyback directed towards the Blackstone/Thomson Reuters consortium's stake, which will benefit all shareholders," LSEG Chief Executive David Schwimmer said in a statement. The directed buyback is expected to be up to 750 million pounds by April 2024, LSEG said. LSEG said 300 million pounds of a separate, broader 750 million pound share buyback was carried out in 2022, with the remainder to be completed by July 2023. TARGETSLSEG's total income, including recoveries, of 7.743 billion pounds ($9.28 billion) in preliminary results for 2022, was just above analysts' consensus of 7.733 billion pounds, and up from 6.535 billion in 2021. LSEG also raised its guidance on revenue synergies from 225 million pounds by 2025 to 350-400 million pounds.

☆ LSE Group targets Blackstone/Thomson Reuters stake buyback as it raises outlook
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

"In addition to our existing share buyback, we are today announcing plans to seek shareholder approval for a buyback directed towards the Blackstone/Thomson Reuters consortium's stake, which will benefit all shareholders," LSEG Chief Executive David Schwimmer said in a statement. The directed buyback is expected to be up to 750 million pounds by April 2024, LSEG said. Schwimmer said the consortium owned just over 30% of LSEG shares when the Refinitiv deal was completed. Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters News, owned about $5.6 billion worth of LSEG shares as of Jan 31. LSEG said 300 million pounds of a separate, broader 750 million pound share buyback was carried out in 2022, with the remainder to be completed by July 2023.

☆ London Stock Exchange Group posts steady 2022 earnings, eyes buyback on Blackstone/TR stake
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LSEG reported total income, including recoveries, of 7.743 billion pounds ($9.28 billion) in preliminary results for 2022, just above analysts' consensus of 7.733 billion pounds. It reported a basic earnings per share of 141.8 pence and a dividend per share of 107 pence, both above analysts' forecasts. It said 300 million pounds of a separate 750 million pound share buyback was executed in 2022, with the remainder to be completed by July 2023. Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters News, owned about $5.6 billion worth of LSEG shares as of Jan 31. Schwimmer said the integration of Refinitiv and a strategic $2 billion partnership announced with Microsoft in December meant the group is "shifting from integration to transformation".

☆ Exclusive: Blackstone set to raise as much as $10 billion for tactical opportunities
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Chibuike Oguh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Blackstone Inc (BX.N), the world's largest private equity firm, is set to raise as much as $10 billion for its tactical opportunities strategy, which gives it versatility to invest in a range of assets, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Blackstone has amassed about $5 billion for the Blackstone Tactical Opportunities Fund IV, which was initially aiming to raise only $4 billion, Reuters previously reported. Blackstone has raised three previous tactical opportunities funds that cumulatively collected about $16.4 billion from investors since the first of them was first launched in 2012. The $6.7 billion Blackstone Tactical Opportunities Fund II and the Tactical Opportunities Fund III, which raised $4.09 billion, had generated a net internal rate of return of 14.1% and 11.7%, respectively, as of June last year, according to the California Public Employees' Retirement System. Blackstone's tactical opportunities division has about $34 billion in assets under management.

☆ Meet the Blackstone execs taking on new roles across real estate, private equity, and credit as the firm shakes up leadership
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Blackstone is making changes to its real estate, private equity, and credit leadership. Murphy will replace the longtime Blackstone executive Robert Ramsauer, who is leaving the firm after 19 years. It is also shuffling the leadership of its credit business and its real estate business that includes Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, known as BREIT, a high-profile fund for the firm that has recently faced redemption requests. The firm's leadership changes extend to its credit business. von Zuben's shift marks the second leadership change in the credit business, a particularly competitive area for private investment firms, that Blackstone has announced this year.

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