Private Equity Goes Public
最近PE的三巨头Blackstone, KKR, Carlyle相继宣布了IPO计划，这是一件很有意思的事，因为一直以来PE都给人一种“幕后黑手”的形象，不在媒体上公开露面，不接受采访，不向外接透露的business model, 以及其案件动则数十亿美金的巨额数字，都叫人摸不着头脑。甚至于在得知中国政府投资公司购入9.9% BX的股权后，一些对PE毫不知情的人还指责该投资是被美国人骗了钱财，我心里暗想若自己能分到一杯羹该是多么幸福的事。
下面摘录一小段Blackstone 8-K上的内容：
On June 27, 2007, the Partnership completed the initial public offering of the Common Units by issuing 153,333,334 Common Units, including Common Units issued to the underwriters pursuant to their election to exercise in full their option to purchase additional Common Units, for cash consideration of $29.682 per Common Unit (net of underwriting discounts) to a syndicate of underwriters led by Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. as the global coordinators and representatives of the underwriters and, together with Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Lehman Brothers Inc. and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., the joint book-running managers for the offering. The other underwriters in the syndicate were ABN AMRO Rothschild LLC, Banc of America Securities LLC, Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., Lazard Capital Markets LLC, UBS Securities LLC, Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC, Nikko Citigroup Limited, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ), Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Calyon Securities (USA) Inc., Mizuho Securities USA Inc., RBC Capital Markets Corporation, Blaylock & Company, Inc., Chapin, Davis, Samuel A. Ramirez & Co., Inc., Muriel Siebert & Co., Inc., Stephens Inc., The Williams Capital Group, L.P., Chatsworth Securities LLC, Dominick & Dominick LLC, Jackson Securities, LLC, Loop Capital Markets, LLC and Toussaint Capital Partners, LLC.
这个IPO由Morgan Stanley和Citigroup牵头(global coordinator), 而世界上所有有头有脸的投行和证券公司几乎都参与了BX的此次融资活动，可见这个case规模的庞大和复杂。
而KKR放出IPO计划之后，最近又语出惊人地宣称上市之后他们将会把业务拓展到全球资本市场(Capital Market)去，会开始从事通常属于投资银行业务范畴的诸如发股和发债之类的融资服务。咋一看以为KKR要抢夺I-Bank的饭碗，但实际上KKR的目的在于把通常PE收购行为中涉及到的一个重要的融资步骤——LBO Loan, 也就是杠杆贷款的筹集放到公司内部执行，而非像以前那样外包给投行。这样可以节约一大笔手续费，以提高项目所带来的IRR, 给予投资人以更大的魅力和诱惑。
这样看来PE goes public的目的就比较清楚了。做Capital Market的process需要企业有一定的规模，在世界各地有相应的业务部门和办事处，才能拥有全球范围融资的能力，因此只有通过IPO一并扩大其资本规模，创造更多世界范围的关系网，才能达成CM内部化的目的。
当然，public listed一定有其负面作用，很难讲投资者是不是会持续追捧PE这类大部分依靠长期项目回报的公司，毕竟对于世界上的大部分股民来说，要理解PE的盈利模式有些过于困难了。不过个人认为PE和.com公司不同的地方在于，前者拥有强大得多的企业运营和管理能力，不需要依靠一个局部范围的产业泡沫经济来博彩，因此长期看会是一个相当有发展潜力的产业。
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