Monday, December 6, 2010

Private Equity: Carlyle Set to File for IPO as Investors Grow Wary of Buyouts

Stocks are either for buyin' or for sellin'.
Combined with the Glencore IPO I may be moving from the center of the dance floor to a spot a bit closer to the exits sometime next year.
From Bloomberg:
William Conway, the deal maker who helped build Carlyle Group into the world’s second-biggest private-equity firm, said the company is gearing up for a public share sale to amass permanent capital and contend with the growing challenge of raising money for buyout funds.

“There will be significant advantages to having a lot more capital,” Conway, 61, who oversees the Washington-based firm’s investments, said in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek. “Investors are reducing commitments to funds and making economic terms much less attractive.”

Carlyle has considered an initial public offering since at least June 2007, when larger rival Blackstone Group LP began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Plans were put on hold soon after when debt markets froze. Carlyle instead sold a 7.5 percent stake to Mubadala Development Co., an arm of the Abu Dhabi government, in September 2007.

After participating in $16 billion of buyouts this year, more than any other private-equity firm, Carlyle plans to file IPO papers late in 2011, said people with knowledge of the matter. The stock sale may not occur until the following year, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private....MORE