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Blackstone CEO Sees ‘Remarkable’ Opportunities in Slumping Oil 2015-03-28 09:25:39.344 GMT
By Bloomberg News (Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Group LP’s Chairman Stephen Schwarzman is seeing “remarkable” opportunities in debt and equity that are emerging out of the slump in crude oil. Most of the New York-based private equity firm’s energy investments aren’t in oil, meaning its exposure to lower oil prices is limited, Schwarzman said in an interview on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia with Bloomberg Television on Saturday. Schwarzman, who is also chief executive officer of Blackstone, didn’t elaborate on specific energy investments. Crude prices tumbled more than 50 percent after the U.S. shale boom boosted output to a three-decade high and as OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, relinquished its traditional role adjusting production to moderate price swings in an effort to maintain market share. Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell from last year’s high of $115.71 a barrel to a six-year low of $45.19 on Jan. 13. Blackstone, the world’s largest private-equity investor, is also actively looking at European property, Schwarzman said. His firm agreed this month to buy an office building in London for 268.4 million pounds ($400 million) from Land Securities Group Plc. Blackstone may have $100 billion of low- risk real estate under management in a decade, Schwarzman said in July.
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--With assistance from Stephen Engle in Beijing.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Feifei Shen in Beijing at +86-10-6649-7528 or fshen11@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Marcus Wright at +65-6499-2613 or mwright115@bloomberg.net Darren Boey, Jim McDonald