Private Equity and Venture Capital in Europe

Foreword

The private equity industry, dominated since 1988 by Kolhberg Kravis Roberts & Co., architects of the famed $30 billion LBO of RJR Nabisco in 1988, stood in awe in June 2007 after the initial public offering of The Blackstone Group, a diversified alternative asset investment manager with $88 billion of assets under management was successfully launched and traded to a premium. The offering, which included a non-voting $3 billion investment by the State Investment Company of China, was priced at $31 per share, and opened for trading at $36.45 per share just two days after two Bear Stearns hedge funds collapsed, ushering in the beginning of the 2007–2008 mortgage securities crisis. The offering valued Blackstone at about $38 billion, and ...