Blackstone Rejects SEC Request for Fund Data as Fortress Agrees

[The Straight Story]

Blackstone Rejects SEC Request for Fund Data as Fortress Agrees

March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest private-equity firm, rebuffed a request from securities regulators to publicly disclose the performance of its buyout and hedge funds while Fortress Investment Group LLC agreed.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asked both New York-based companies to include fund returns in their financial reports, according to letters the agency released earlier this month. Fortress did so in its annual report. Blackstone told the SEC it wouldn’t.

Buyout firms and hedge-fund managers are accustomed to operating in private, and the decisions by both companies to sell shares to the public in 2007 sparked debate over how much information they would divulge. Returns are an important indicator of a firm’s ability to attract new cash from clients and increase revenue, said Conrad Weymann, managing partner at Mallory Capital Group LLC, a Darien, Connecticut-based investment bank.

“In this game, it’s track record, track record, track record,” said Weyman, whose firm raises money for private- equity and private real-estate funds.

The SEC asked Blackstone and Fortress last year to publish “performance information” in future filings. The SEC requested details including the name of each fund, the date it was formed, assets under management and net return for each period presented in the filing.

In explaining why investors should get the data, the SEC cited Blackstone’s and Fortress’s own words in previous filings. Both had warned investors that subpar performance could hinder future revenue and their ability to start new funds.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aNp8YOTj3PVk&refer=home

[spag68]

1. Blackstone

How about this, let all the imprisoned pot-heads out and replace them with hedge fund managers?