The Edge Reveals Value of a Wall Street Rainmaker’s Secret to Trillions Worth of M&A Deals / PJT and Blackstone Spinoff
Oct 1, 2015
By Sonali Basak, Senior Reporter, Bloomberg: PJT Spinoff goes public after merging with Blackstone unit, Schwarzman is the single biggest investor in Taubman’s firm. Taubman has pulled off a long list of deals from Pfizer Inc.’s $64 billion takeover of Wyeth to Verizon Communications Inc.’s $130 billion buyout of Vodafone Group Plc’s wireless stake. The 54-year-old dealmaker is combining his own startup, PJT Partners Inc. (PJT – Get Report), with the mergers and restructuring businesses of Blackstone Group LP, the private-equity giant headed by Stephen Schwarzman. In fact, more than 200 Blackstone bankers spanning M&A, restructuring and alternative-asset fundraising are joining PJT, jump-starting growth in a way that has put rival boutiques on notice.
However, PJT’s first year as a public company could be its most difficult because it may need spend more to grow, said Jonathan Morgan, a deals analyst at The Edge. With compensation accounting for most of the expenses, the Blackstone businesses had a net loss of $23 million in the first half, a filing showed. If that holds, it would be the second loss in three years. Like many other boutiques before it, PJT is looking to capitalize on the resurgence in M&A to win more high-profile mandates as companies seek alternatives to Wall Street’s “bulge-bracket” firms in the post-crisis era.