By Patrick Clark 9/17/12 3:40pm

on the map

PEatwork

Private Equity Firms Invested Most in New York’s 14th Congressional District

So much more fun than a whiteboard video! The Private Equity Capital Growth Council, the buyout industry lobbying group that spent the summer bestowing upon the Internets a series of animated explainers, released an interactive map that’s pretty cool.

The map will tell you, for instance, that the New York State and Local Retirement System socked $14.9 billion of its $147.2 billion in investment dollars into private equity funds last year. You could have dug up that data on your own, but PECGC compiled the same data from the two biggest pension funds in each of the 50 state for which such data was available, and pulled together a handy ranking: Read More

By Patrick Clark 9/12/12 12:46pm

PE benefits

Private Equity Benefits Average Americans, Says Industry Group; Also Whisteblowers?

We occasionally wonder why more of the conversation about the outsized incomes earned by successful hedge fund and private equity managers doesn’t touch on the clients footing the bill. Which is to say, before you complain about how much money managers make, it’s worth remembering that institutional investors—pension funds, university endowments, etc.—pay managers to invest institutions’ money.

Well, in case you didn’t realize or somehow forgot who private equity firms work for, an industry lobbying group is here say they work for you: “The vast majority of the firms’ returns go directly to the firms’ investors,” says the narrator of an animated web video published today by the Private Equity Growth Capital Council. “So when private equity succeeds, public school teachers in Michigan, police and firefighters in Colorado, nurses in Ohio and college students in North Carolina reap the benefits.” Read More

By Patrick Clark 9/04/12 7:45am

Morning Read

New York AG Probes Private Equity Tax Practice; Pointing the Finger at Facebook Exec: Roundup

If you missed it over the weekend, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is investigating the tax practices of private equity firms. At the center of the inquiry is the practice of converting management fees into investments that are taxed at more favorable rates. The private equity industry says such conversions are widely practiced and accepted; here’s a tax lawyer who says they’re illegal. Read More

By Patrick Clark 5/17/12 7:46am

Morning Read

JP Morgan Chase Headquarters in New York

JPMorgan Loses Another $1 Billion on Bad Bet, Facebook Brokers Say They’re Out of Stock: Wall Street Roundup

Losses mount: Tack on another $1 billion to the $2 billion-plus in trading losses JPMorgan disclosed a week ago today, says Dealbook, as hedge funds and other investors—knowing that Jamie Dimon’s firm is under pressure to sell out from under the losing bet—continue to prey on the firm’s huge, illiquid position.

Before Bruno Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/17/11 12:01am

Blackstoned

Gray at play. (Fred Harper)

Jonathan Gray, Blackstone’s Real Estate Wizard Behind the Curtain

In February 2007, Sam Zell told Jonathan Gray to buy a motorcycle.

Mr. Gray, head of the real estate division at private equity powerhouse Blackstone Group, had just closed on the purchase of Mr. Zell’s Equity Office Properties. Blackstone had announced its bid the previous November, just 13 months after Mr. Gray had stepped into his new role. He had spent his entire career at the firm, so his ascent was not so surprising, and had managed 10 deals worth a combined $32 billion so far, so the territory was not exactly new. All the same, Mr. Gray was 37 years old at the time, and he had embarked on the largest leveraged buyout in history.

On Jan. 18, less than a month before the deal was to close, Vornado Realty and two backers launched an unsolicited bid. It was $52 a share to Blackstone’s $48.50. Steve Roth, the bullish—in outlook, demeanor and build—chairman of the massive New York-based investment trust had arrived in the bookish Mr. Gray’s china shop, and it was now a scramble to fend him off. Read More