Blackstone
Transcript: Company Overview Opportunities: • International market expansion • New products and services • Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for Blackstone Group to capture new customers and increase its market share. • Stable free cash flow provides opportunities to inves. With more cash in bank the company can invest in new technologies as well as in new products segments. This should open a window of opportunity for Blackstone Group in other product categories. • New customers from online channel. Over the past few years the company has invested more into the online platform. This investment has opened new sales channel for Blackstone Group. In the next few years the company can leverage this opportunity by knowing its customer better and serving their needs using big data analytics Threats: • Economic fluctuations and a weak economy • Intense competition • Regulation to oversee private equity and hedge funds • Substitutes, alternate investing possibilities • Rising pay level especially movements such as $15 an hour and increasing prices in China can lead to serious pressure on profitability of Blackstone Group • As the company is operating in numerous countries it is exposed to currency fluctuations especially given the volatile political climate in number of markets across the world. • The company can face lawsuits in various markets given different laws and continuous fluctuations regarding product standards in those markets. Current headline projects References Michael Kaye Victor De Maat Arman Manji Ryan Bloomfield (Blackstone, 2018) Blackstone is split into 4 main areas Founded by Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman in 1985. The name 'Blackstone' was formed using their names and a translation from german and greek. Both previously worked for Lehman brothers and decided to break off and start their own firm. They started with a balance sheet of $400,000 Blackstone originally formed as a merger and acquisition consultancy firm. They advised on the 1987 merger off investment banks E.F Hutton and Co. and collected a fee of $3.5million They then planned to enter the private equity sector, but had difficulties raising funds due to neither of them having experience in leading a leveraged buy out In 1987 Blackstone entered into a 50/50 partnership with the founders of BlackRock In 1988 japanese bank Nikko securities acquired a 20% stake in Blackstone for $100million, which valued the firm at $500million which allowed Blackstone to expand and grow to the size it is today. Business Model and strategy Customer Segments Blackstone serves a range of clients across multiple demographics and business sectors. These customers include: • Individual Clients, usually high-net wealth individuals providing them with various asset management services. • Corporate and Commercial Clients, to which it provides fund management, advisory and corporate restructuring services. • Public and Government Clients, to which it provides fund and asset management, and advisory services. Key Values Blackstone provides value to its customers in the following ways: • Its reputation and prestige – Blackstone are an established industry leader and have provided advisory services to high profile companies such as Microsoft. • Its technical expertise and experience – employing highly trained specialist staff. • Its broad international reach – supplying services across America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. • Its successful track record – in December 2017 Blackstone have 434billion Dollars of assets under management. Channels • Blackstone provides its services to clients directly and often in person through their network of offices building close and strong relationships. • They consult customers through teams by region, asset class and business segment • Blackstone also operates on a website which provides information on all their services, infrastructure, charitable foundation, corporate social reasonability, history, personnel and performance. Each office across the world has senior management staff to report to the board and run the day to day dealings in their location https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-17/blackstone-s-new-pipeline-asset-is-wreaking-environmental-havoc https://seekingalpha.com/article/3829856-blackstone-crushing-private-equity-competition https://www.blackstone.com/the-firm/our-offices https://www.ft.com/content/1804c0cc-059e-11e8-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-31/blackstone-s-biggest-deal-in-decade-stitched-by-3-month-old-bank https://seekingalpha.com/article/3829856-blackstone-crushing-private-equity-competition https://www.archdaily.com/804907/willis-tower-to-receive-500-dollars-million-renovation https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2017/05/20/blackstone-unveils-40-billion-infrastructure-mega-fund-with-saudi-arabia-as-trump-visits/#56ea011b67ad Blackstone.com Business