-=Tallgrass Energy (TGE) to be acquired by Blackstone Infrastructure Partners for $22.45/share

Tallgrass Energy announces agreement for the purchase of its publicly-held class a shares by Blackstone Infrastructure Partners (BIP) for $22.45/share

Co announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which affiliates of Blackstone Infrastructure Partners together with affiliates of Enagas, GIC, NPS and USS (collectively with Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, the "Sponsors") will acquire all of the publicly-held outstanding Class A Shares of TGE for $22.45 in cash per Class A Share.

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2020, subject to the satisfaction of customary conditions, including approval of the merger by holders of a majority of the outstanding Class A and Class B Shares of TGE, voting together as a single class, inclusive of the approximately 44 percent of the total Class A and Class B Shares held by the Sponsors. Upon closing of the transaction, the Class A Shares will cease to be publicly traded. Pursuant to the merger agreement, TGE has agreed not to pay distributions during the pendency of the transactions contemplated by the merger agreement.

=Blackstone (BX) reported earnings on Wed 23 Oct 19 (b/o)

Blackstone beats by $0.03, beats on revs

Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.58 per share, $0.03 better than the S&P Capital IQ Consensus of $0.55; revenues fell 9.9% year/year to $1.74 bln vs the $1.31 bln S&P Capital IQ Consensus.

Total Assets Under Management ("AUM") of $554.0 billion, up 21% year-over-year

Blackstone has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.49 per common share to record holders of common shares at the close of business on November 4, 2019.

Earnings this week : Oct 21 - 25, 19 (wk 43)

Monday (Oct 21)

• Morning: HAL LII PETS SAP
• Afternoon: ACC ELS HXL HMST LOGI AMTD  TACO

Tuesday (Oct 22)

• Morning: ABG BIIB CNC GATX HOG HAS JBLU KMB LMT MCD PCAR  PII PG DGX SERV  SHW TRV  TTS  UTX UPS
• Afternoon: BYD CMG CNI CSGP CSL DFS EEFT EQR FMBI FULT HA HCSG HIW IRBT LRN MANH MPWR MTH NAVI NBHC NBTB NTB SIX SKX SNAP TER TRMK TXN UCBI USNA WHR WRB

Wednesday (Oct 23)

• Morning: ABB ALKS ALXN ANTM APH AVY BA BANC BCO BKU BOKF BPOP BSX BX CADE CAT CLF CMC CSTM EVR FCFS FCX FSV GD GWW HLT HRI HTLD IVZ KNX LAD LLY MHO MKTX NDAQ NSC NTRS OC PB PNR RCI RES ROL SALT SCL SLAB SLGN TDY TMO TZOO UNF WGO WM
• Afternoon: AEM AKR ALGN AMP APY ARI ASGN BCOV BMRN BXMT CLB CLGX CMRE CP CUBI CUZ CVBF DHT EBAY ECHO EFX EGP EIG ESRT ESS EW F FBHS FFIV FR FTI GGG GL HNI ICLR ISBC KALU KNL KRA KRC LMAT LRCX LSTR LVS MKSI MSA MSFT MX NGVT NOW NTGR NXGN ORLY PKG PLXS PTC PYPL QEP RHI RJF RRC SAVE SEIC SLM SRPT STL SUI TRN TSLA UFPI VAR VMI WPG WSBC XLNX

Thursday (Oct 24)

• Morning: AAL AB ADS AEP AIMC ALLE ASPS AXTA AZN BAX BC BGCP CMCS.A CMS COLB COWN CRI CRS CTS CTXS DHR DOW ENTG FAF FCN GNC GPI GRA HBAN HEES HSY IART KIM LH LUV MMM MNRO MSM MTRN NOC NOK ODFL ONDK ORI PATK PDS PRLB PTEN ROP RS RTN SAH SCHN STM SWK TAL TECK TROW TRTN TSCO TWTR UBSI VC VLO VLY WST XEL
• Afternoon: AFL AJG ALGT ALK AMZN ANIK ASB AUY AVT BHE BJRI BOOM CERN CINF CLS COF COG CSLT CUBE CVA CXP CY DECK DLX EHTH EMN ENVA FET FHB FII FIX FLEX FSLR FTV FWRD GCAP GILD HLI ILMN INTC JNPR KN LOGM LPLA MHK MXL NTUS OIS OMCL OSIS PEB PFG PFPT POWI PRO RMD SBCF SIVB SPSC SWN TNET UHS V VCRA VRSN VVI WERN WRE 

Friday (Oct 125)

• Morning: ALV AON B BEN BUD CHTR GBX GRC GT GVA HUN ITW KEX LEA NRZ PFS PSX PSXP ROCK SBSI SJR TILE UFS VFC VRTS VTR VZ WETF WY YNDX

Reports this week:

• Monday: No economic data scheduled
• Tuesday: September Existing Home Sales (prior 5.49 mln) at 10:00 ET and $40 bln 2-yr Treasury note auction results at 13:00 ET
• Wednesday: Weekly MBA Mortgage Index (prior 0.5%) at 7:00 ET; August FHFA Housing Price Index (prior 0.4%) at 9:00 ET; weekly crude oil inventories (prior +8.0 mln) at 10:30 ET; and $41 bln 5-yr Treasury note auction results at 13:00 ET
• Thursday: Weekly Initial Claims (prior 214,000), Continuing Claims (prior 1.679 mln), September Durable Orders (prior 0.2%), and Durable Orders ex-transportation (prior 0.5%) at 8:30 ET; September New Home Sales (prior 713,000) at 10:00 ET; weekly natural gas inventories (prior +104 bcf) at 10:30 ET; and $32 bln 7-yr Treasury note auction results at 13:00 ET
• Friday: Final October Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey (prior 96.0) at 10:00 ET

Notable earnings reports: 

• Halliburton (NYSE:HAL), SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) and TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ:AMTD) on October 21; 
• UPS (UPS), McDonald's (MCD), Procter & Gamble (PG), Travelers (NYSE:TRV), United Technologies (NYSE:UTX), Centene (NYSE:CNC), Chipotle (NYSE:CMG), Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS), Hasbro (NASDAQ:HAS) and Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) on October 22; 
• Boeing (BA), Caterpillar (CAT), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Anthem (NYSE:ANTM), Blackstone (NYSE:BX), Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX), Canadian Pacific (NYSE:CP), Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF), eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW), Eli Lilly (NYSE:ELY), Equifax (NYSE:EFX), F5 Networks (NASDAQ:FFIV), Ford (NYSE:F), PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL), Tesla (TSLA) and General Dynamics (NYSE:GD) on October 23; 
• Intel (INTC), Visa (NYSE:V), Amazon (AMZN), Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), Raytheon (NYSE:RTN), Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV), T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUS), Twitter (TWTR) and Northrop Grumman (NGC) on October 24; 
• Verizon (NYSE:VZ) and Anheuser-Busch InBev (NYSE:BUD) on October 25. 

Tallgrass Energy (TGE) receives a buyout offer from Blackstone (BX) for $19.50/sh

• Tallgrass Energy (TEGP) has IPO on 7 May 2015
• Tallgrass Energy (TEGP) acquires Tallgrass Energy Partners (TEP); TEGP change its name to Tallgrass Energy LP and trades on the NYSE under the symbol TGE.  27 March 2018
• Tallgrass Energy (TGE) receives a buyout offer from Blackstone (BX) for $19.50 per share.  27 Aug 2019

  

• Tallgrass had been trading for $24 recently and plummeted once Blackstone got involved in the first place.
• A questionable side deal with management potentially allows insiders to cash out at $26.25 while the general public gets far less for their shares.
• The situation isn't fully played out yet, Blackstone may have to sweeten their offer to close the deal.

Aug 27 (Reuters) - Midstream energy firm Tallgrass Energy said on Tuesday it had received an offer from Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, its partners and affiliates to acquire the shares in the company that they do not already own.

These shareholders, who together already own about a 44.2% stake in Tallgrass including 23.7 million Class A shares, have made a non-binding preliminary proposal to buy Tallgrass' remaining Class A shares at $19.50 per unit, the company said.

The offer represents a 35.9% premium to the company's last close on Tuesday.

The latest transaction will be valued at $3.03 billion based on the number of Class A shares of 179.2 million at the end of July 31, as reported in the company's latest filing.

In January, Blackstone Group LP said it would buy a controlling stake in Tallgrass for $3.3 billion. Tallgrass said https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190827005832/en its board intends to form a committee consisting of independent directors to consider the proposal.

Citigroup Inc is the financial adviser and Vinson & Elkins the legal adviser to the midstream energy firm.

=Blackstone (BX) reported earnings on Thur 18 April 2019 (b/o)

Blackstone beats by $0.12, beats on revs; announces plans to convert to a corporation 

• Reports Q1 (Mar) earnings of $0.71 per share, $0.12 better than the S&P Capital IQ Consensus of $0.59; revenues rose 14.5% year/year to $2.02 bln vs the $1.48 bln S&P Capital IQ Consensus.
• Total Assets Under Management ("AUM") of $511.8 billion, up 14% year-over-year
• Announced plans to convert to a corporation, expected to be effective July 1, 2019

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blackstone Group LP, the world's largest manager of alternative assets such as private equity and real estate, said on Thursday it would convert from a partnership to a corporation, in a bid to get more investors into its stock.

Blackstone is hoping the move, which will take effect July 1, will boost its share price, which has traded at a discount to traditional asset managers such as BlackRock Inc for more than a decade.

Under the so-called C-Corp structure, Blackstone will pay corporate taxes on all its revenue, in exchange for enabling investors such as mutual funds and index trackers to buy the stock.

The additional tax burden has become less severe after the headline U.S. corporate tax rate was lowered effective last year to 21 percent from 35 percent.

Two other private equity firms, KKR & Co Inc and Ares Management Corp, announced last year they would also make the switch.

Passive investors such as mutual funds, which are becoming more important as they manage more money, are restricted by their mandates from acquiring the stock of publicly listed partnerships.

Private equity firms pay corporate taxes under the partnership structure on the management fees charged to investors, but are mostly shielded from paying these taxes on performance fees.

Blackstone said the expanded investor base was worth what it called a "modest" tax hit.

"We believe the decision to convert will make it significantly easier for both domestic and international investors to own our stock and should drive greater value for all of our shareholders over time," Blackstone Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman said in a statement.

Blackstone also announced first-quarter earnings on Thursday, reporting distributable earnings - the actual cash available for paying dividends - of $538 million (£414 million) in the first quarter, up from $502 million a year earlier.

This translated to distributable earnings per share of 41 cents, lower than the 51 cents analysts had predicted on average based on Refinitiv data.

Nevertheless, the announcement of the switch to a corporation sent Blackstone shares surging about 10 percent in premarket trading to $39.20.

"We believe this will unlock value, as the partnership structure made it too difficult for many of our long-only clients, and major indexes, to own," Credit Suisse analysts wrote in a research note.

Fee-related earnings, the amount Blackstone earns from management fees, were up 11 percent year-on-year at $374 million.

Blackstone said its assets under management reached $512 billion at the end of March, up 14 percent from a year ago.

Blackstone declared a first-quarter dividend of 37 cents per share.

Earnings this week : April 15 - 19, 2019 (wk 16)

Monday (April 15)

• Morning: APHA C GS MTB
• Afternoon: JBHT PNFP WTFC

Tuesday (April 16)

• Morning: BAC   BLK CMA FHN JNJ OMC PGR PLD UNH WIT
• Afternoon: CSX FULT HWC HOPE IBM IBKR MRTN MLNX NFLX UAL WSBC

Wednesday (April 17)

• Morning: ABT ASML BMI BK ERIC KSU MS PNR PEP POL TXT USB
• Afternoon: ADTN AA TEAM BXS OZK CATY CNS CCK CCI ETFC EGBN KMI LVS LLNW PIR PLXS SLM SLG SNBR TCBI TMK TBK UMPQ URI

Thursday (April 18)

• Morning: ALLY AXP BBT BX GTLS CHKP CFG DHR DOV EWBC GPC HTLD HOMB HON IIIN KEY MAN PM POOL BPOP PPG RF RCI SASR SLB SKX SNA SON STI SYF TSM TRV UNP WBS
• Afternoon: EXPO ISRG PBCT

Friday (April 17) : Bond and equity markets closed for Good Friday

Other reports this week:

• Monday: April Empire State Manufacturing Index (prior 3.7) at 8:30 ET and February Net Long-Term TIC flows (prior -$7.20 bln) at 16:00 ET
• Tuesday: March Industrial Production (prior 0.1%) and Capacity Utilization (prior 78.2%) at 9:15 ET and April NAHB Housing Market Index (prior 62) at 10:00 ET
• Wednesday: Weekly MBA Mortgage Index (prior -5.6%) at 7:00 ET; February Trade Balance (prior -$51.10 bln) at 8:30 ET; February Wholesale Inventories (prior 1.4%) at 10:00 ET; Weekly crude oil inventories (prior 7.0 mln) at 10:30 ET; and April Fed Beige Book at 14:00 ET
• Thursday: March Retail Sales (prior -0.2%), Retail Sales ex-auto (prior -0.4%), Initial Claims (prior 196,000), Continuing Claims (prior 1.713 mln), and Philadelphia Fed Survey (prior 13.7) at 8:30 ET; February Business Inventories (prior 0.8%) and March Leading Indicators (prior 0.2%) at 10:00 ET; and weekly natural gas inventories (prior +25 bcf) at 10:30 ET

Implied moves for earnings this week:

• $NFLX 8.1%
• $BAC 4.2%
• $C 4.1%
• $GS 4.7%
• $JNJ 3.1%
• $IBM 5.3%
• $CSX 4.2%
• $UAL 5.1%
• $ABT 3.6%
• $TEAM 9.4%
• $MS 4.5%
• $AA 7.4%
• $PEP 2.3%
• $ISRG 3.5%
• $UNH 4.7%
• $BLK 3.1%
• $LVS 4.3%

=Nielsen (NLSN): Blackstone (BX) drops out of the bidding process

The New York Post reported that Blackstone dropped out of the bidding process to acquire Nielsen.

Separately, private equity firm Apollo Global Management, which began sniffing around the company late last year, is also losing interest, a source close to the situation said.

Blackstone, which is controlled by billionaire Stephen Schwarzman, and Apollo were the strongest suitors for Nielsen, raising questions about whether it will be sold.

Part of the problem is that Nielsen’s $26.63 share stock price values the company at roughly $9.4 billion. But it’s debt of roughly $8 billion raises the cost to upward of $17 billion.

Blackstone — whose managing director, David Calhoun, ran Nielsen between 2006 and 2013 — didn’t like the numbers, which come at a time when Nielsen is struggling to raise prices for its research reports on consumer product trends.

Historically, the ratings firm was able to raise prices for those reports by roughly 5 percent a year, a research analyst said. But its consumer report clients, which include Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola, are now balking at price increases given their own financial difficulties, this person said.

Nielsen has been refashioning its consumer research business so it will be cheaper to operate, which will lead to lower rates, much like its rival IRI, the analyst said.

Research firm SunTrust Robinson Humphrey recently lowered its projection for the company’s future cash flow by 14 percent from $700 million to $604 million.

=Blackstone (BX) reported earnings on Thur 19 Apr 2018 (b/o)

Blackstone beats by $0.15, beats on revs; increases share repurchase to $1 bln 

• Reports Q1 (Mar) ENI earnings of $0.65 per share, $0.15 better thanthe Capital IQ Consensus of $0.50; revenues fell 7.6% year/year to $1.77 bln vs the $1.25 bln Capital IQ Consensus. 
• AUM grew to a record $449.6 billion, up 22% year-over-year, through a combination of continued fundraising and fund appreciation.
• "Co is pleased to announce we have increased our unit repurchase authorization to $1 billion. We also intend to make a special distribution of $0.30 per unit in 2018 representing a portion of the proceeds received in connection with the conclusion of our direct lending sub-advisory relationship."

=Blackstone (BX) reported earnings on Thur 19 Oct 2017 (b/o)

• Div/yield 0.54/6.75

Blackstone beats by $0.15, beats on revs

• Reports Q3 (Sep) economic net income of $0.69 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.15 better thanthe Capital IQ Consensus of $0.54; revenues rose 21.4% year/year to $1.69 bln vs the $1.39 bln Capital IQ Consensus. 
• Distributable earnings +5% to $626 mln or $0.52/share.
• Corporate Private Equity carrying value increased 3.3% in the quarter driven by solid appreciation in the private portfolio, partially offset by decreases in the public portfolio. Realizations of $2.4 billion in the quarter were driven by strong activity across Corporate Private Equity, Tactical Opportunities, and Strategic Partners, bringing year-to-date realizations to $11.4 billion.
• RE: Opportunistic funds' carrying value increased 5.5% in the quarter due to strong appreciation in both the private and public investment portfolios; core+ funds' carrying value increased 3.2% in the quarter. Realizations of $3.1 billion in the quarter driven by public stock sales of Hilton companies, the sale of a U.K. office property and assets in Equity Office Properties and Trizec, bringing the year-to-date total to $14.3 billion.
• Total AUM increased 7% year-over-year to $387.4 billion driven by $62.4 billion of inflows. Fee-Earning AUM of $285.7 billion up 7% year-over-year as $54.2 billion of inflows outpaced $45.1 billion of realizations and outflows

=Blackstone (BX) reported earnings on Thur 20 Apr 2017 (b/o)

Blackstone beats by $0.14, beats on revs  :

• Reports Q1 (Mar) ENI of $0.82 per share, $0.14 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.68; revenues rose 108.1% year/year to $1.94 bln vs the $1.6 bln Capital IQ Consensus. 
• Distributable Earnings ("DE") was $1.2 billion ($1.02/unit) in the quarter, with record realizations resulting in $1.2 billion of Realized Performance Fees.
• Fee Related Earnings ("FRE") was $291 million in the quarter, up 18% year-over-year, on $650 million of Management and Advisory Fees, Net.
• Total Assets Under Management grew to a record $368.2 billion through a combination of continued fundraising, organic platform expansion and strong fund appreciation.
• Declares $0.87 distribution.

Fortress Investment Group (FIG) to be acquired by SoftBank Group for $3.3 billion

Fortress went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2007, before the financial crisis. Fortress’s stock price is down 80% since it began trading. The stock dipped below $1, and the firm did not consistently return to profitability until 2012.

Under the terms of the deal, Fortress will become an independent subsidiary of SoftBank.

SoftBank will now oversee assets under management of $170 billion, making it one of the largest private investors in the world after the Blackstone Group (BX) , which manages about $330 billion.

SoftBank is known for its technology and telecom holdings with investments in Alibaba, Sprint Nextel Corp. and Yahoo! Japan Corp.

  

Fortress will operate within SoftBank as an independent business headquartered in New York. Fortress manages about $70 billion in assets and invests in real estate, credit and private equity.

“Fortress’s excellent track record speaks for itself, and we look forward to benefiting from its leadership, broad-based expertise and world-class investment platform,” Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group said in a statement.

In December, after a meeting with then president-elect Donald Trump, Son said SoftBank planned to invest $50 billion in the U.S. economy and add 50,000 jobs. It was not clear if the Fortress acquisition was part of those investment plans.

"This is an investment in America, but it would be premature at this stage to say what the exact job impact will be," SoftBank spokesman Matthew Nicholson said in an email.

In the Fortress deal, each Class A shareholder will receive $8.08 per share, which represents a premium of 38.6% to the closing price of Fortress Class A common stock on Monday. In addition, each Class A shareholder may receive up to two regular quarterly dividends prior to the closing, each in an amount not to exceed 9 cents a Share.

Pete Briger, Wes Edens and Randy Nardone have agreed to continue to lead Fortress and have committed to invest 50% of their after-tax proceeds from the transaction in Fortress-managed funds and vehicles, according to a press release. They have also agreed to vote shares representing 34.99% of the outstanding Fortress voting shares held by them in favor of the transaction.

** charts before  announcement **

** chart 7 months after  announcement **

The SoftBank acquisition was completed in the last week of December, for $3.3 billion to SoftBank Group Corp.

=Blackstone (BX) reported earnings on Thur 26 Jan 2017 (b/o)

Blackstone beats by $0.02, beats on revs :

• Reports Q4 (Dec) earnings of $0.68 per share, $0.02 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.66; revenues rose 74.9% year/year to $1.57 bln vs the $1.49 bln Capital IQ Consensus.
• Total AUM increased 9% year-over-year to $366.6 billion driven by $69.7 billion of gross inflows.
  • Each segment experienced growth despite $57.7 billion of capital returned to investors during the year.
• Distributable Earnings was $692 million ($0.55/unit) in the quarter, on $500 million of Realized Performance Fees.
  • DE was $2.2 billion ($1.78/unit) for the year on $1.6 billion of Realized Performance Fees.
• Fee Related Earnings was $328 million in the fourth quarter, on $689 million of Fee Revenues.
  • FRE was $1.0 billion for the year, up 7% year-over-year, on $2.5 billion of Fee Revenues, despite the spin-off of Blackstone's Advisory businesses completed in October 2015.

=Blackstone (BX) reported earnings on Thur 27 Oct 2016 (b/o)

Blackstone beats by $0.09, beats on revs :

• Reports Q3 (Sep) economic net income (marked to market) of $0.57 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.09 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.48; revenues $1.39 bln vs the $1.17 bln Capital IQ Consensus.  
  • PE carrying value +3%; Real estate +3.7%.
• Distributable Earnings was $593 million ($0.48/unit) in the quarter, on $534 million of Realized Performance Fees.
• Fee Related Earnings was $229 million in the third quarter, on $601 million of Fee Revenues.
• Total Assets Under Management reached a record $361.0 billion through a combination of strong fundraising and organic expansion.
• Blackstone declared a third quarter distribution of $0.41 per common unit payable on November 14, 2016. 

=Blackstone (BX) reported earnings on Thur 21 Jul 2016 (b/o)

Blackstone beats by $0.05, beats on revs  :

• Reports Q2 (Jun) earnings of $0.44 per share, $0.05 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.39; revenues fell 2.7% year/year to $1.19 bln vs the $1.02 bln Capital IQ Consensus.
• Distributable Earnings was $503 million ($0.42/unit) in the quarter, on $353 million of Realized Performance Fees.
• Fee Related Earnings was $226 million in the second quarter, up 27% from $178 million in the prior year despite the spin-off of Blackstone's Advisory businesses completed in October 2015.
• Gross inflows were $21.2 billion in the quarter, bringing the last twelve months inflows to $70.0 billion.

Blackstone (BX) to Acquire BioMed Realty Trust (BMR) for $4.8 Billion

     

• Company's common stock ceased trading on the New York Stock Exchange, effective January 28, 2016.

Blackstone Group LP (BX) agreed to buy landlord BioMed Realty Trust Inc. for $4.8 billion, betting on growth in real estate demand from the life sciences and biotechnology industries.  The company has more than 18 million square feet of rental space and posted revenue of $674.6 million in 2014.

The world’s largest private equity investor in real estate will pay $23.75 a share in cash, according to a statement Thursday. That’s about 24 percent more than BioMed’s closing share price on Sept. 22, the day before Bloomberg reported that the San Diego-based real estate investment trust was working with Morgan Stanley to explore a sale.