Blackstone acquired GSO Capital Partners for Cash plus Blackstone Holdings units worth about $635 million at close, with up to a further $310 million in contingent, earnings-based payments over five years, a transaction completed in March 2008, structured as Cash and Blackstone Holdings partnership units, plus contingent earn-out.
GSO Capital Partners operates in Credit / leveraged finance, is based in New York, USA (offices in New York, London, Los Angeles and Houston).
Folding GSO into Blackstone's existing corporate-debt operations created one of the largest credit platforms in alternative asset management, with more than $21 billion in combined assets under management, and gave Blackstone a diversified credit franchise at a moment of dislocation in the credit markets.
The combination of GSO's businesses with our existing corporate debt operations will produce one of the largest credit platforms in the alternative asset management business, with over $21 billion of total assets under management. Given the current dislocation in the credit markets, this is an ideal time to create a more powerful, diversified platform from which to grow Blackstone's business.Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman and CEO, Blackstone
Advisory firms were not disclosed for this transaction.