Blackstone To Close $930 Million Deal With GSO Capital Partners LP

The private equity and investment management firm Blackstone Group announced on Thursday the future acquisition of GSO Capital Partners LP for the sum of $930 million, as well as its plans to buyback $500 million worth of its own share stock. Also, Blackstone agreed to pay $620 million in cash and stock upon closing the deal, and $310 million more in the next five years.

The purchase will double the $10 billion credits the leverage company currently holds, adding up to $21 billion worth of assets, “one of the largest credit platforms in the alternative asset management business,” as Blackstone Chief Executive Officer Stephen Schwarzman said in a statement. He added: “Given the current dislocation in the credit markets, this is an ideal time to create a more powerful, diversified platform.”

According to the Blackstone press release, the acquisition of GSO, which is an alternative asset manager with multi-strategy credit hedge fund, mezzanine fund, a senior debt fund and CLO vehicles, will “augment Blackstone’s global alternative investment platform in the credit area, adding several new lines of business and creating significant synergies and opportunities for the firm.” The press release also mentions that GSO will consequently have an investment platform enhancement opportunity following its acquisition by Blackstone.

Blackstone also mentioned that its unit repurchase program is meant to offset the issuance of units to GSO, by “purchasing the same amount of units from existing holders,” said Hamilton E. James, President and Chief Operating Officer of Blackstone. The repurchase will depend on a series of factors, such as market conditions, legal requirements and so forth. Upon announcing the new acquisition, Blackstone also set a conference call on January 10 in order to further discuss the deal with GSO. The conference call will also be available on the internet through Blackstone’s official website.