Saturday, February 22, 2020

The Structure and Business of Blackstone Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

The Structure and Business of Blackstone - Essay Example It's a veritable feast for the discerning investor's eyes: 37% compound annual revenue growth, 65% operating margins, $3 million in profit per employee, returns on invested capital in the triple digits. And a cherry on top: the Blackstone Group is arguably the uber-buyout firm. Led by billionaire cofounders Steven Schwarzman and Peter Peterson, Blackstone has gone from relative obscurity to global renown in the span of roughly two decades, parlaying a penchant for deal making and a yen for competition into a war chest that now brims with billions of dollars in investment capital. Blackstone Capital has extensive expertise in structuring transactions under Regulation D, SCOR, Rule 144A, Reg. A, Reg. S, and other public or private direct offerings, as well as commercial lending, mezzanine financing, commercial paper, and subordinated debt transactions. Their structures provide an exit strategy for investors with short or long-term holding periods. Basically what Blackstone does is delivers to its client’s necessary capital, for less cost, more efficiently, and strategically structured. It operates from a style, which avails itself of the richness of a variety of investment philosophies and techniques that will ultimately provide superior returns while exposing a particular partnership to lesser risk. It is here, that Blackstone prides itself in creating the innovative financial solutions for its clients. Their primary objective is to maximize value for their clients. Blackstone’s business is organized into four segments: 1) corporate private equity, which focuses on management of the Company’s private equity funds; 2) real estate, which is responsible for management of Blackstone’s various real estate investment funds; 3) â€Å"marketable alternative asset management,† which involves management of Blackstone’s various hedge funds, mezzanine funds, and other â€Å"alternative† in vestment vehicles; and 4) The financial advisory group, which comprises the Company’s advisory services business that provides, for example, merger and acquisition analysis and services to other companies. These various funds are generally structured as limited partnerships that are capitalised by limited-partner investors (such as institutional investors and pension funds) and managed by Blackstone, which, through subsidiary holding partnerships, serves as general partner. Blackstone therefore does not own directly either the various portfolio companies in which it’s corporate private equity funds invest or the real estate assets owned by its real estate funds. Rather, Blackstone derives revenue from two principal sources: It earns a â€Å"management fee† equal to 1.5% of the value of the assets under management; It earns a â€Å"performance fee† or â€Å"carried interest† equal to 20% of the profits generated on the capital it invests for limited partners. Blackstone is subject, however, to having its performance fees â€Å"clawed back.† That is, the Company is obligated to return performance fees to investors if investments perform poorly. In contrast to those who invest in Blackstone’s various funds, investors in Blackstone itself acquire a stake in Blackstone’s investment management business, hoping that strong performance by the various investment funds will generate performance fees for the Company. 4.2 Southern Cross Healthcare Southern Cross He

Thursday, February 6, 2020

Coffee Drinking Habits in UK Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Coffee Drinking Habits in UK - Assignment Example UK's market is predominately penetrated by tea and fruit juices and tea is the third largest non-alcoholic beverage used in the country. However, trends are changing as a new coffee culture is emerging in the country. Most and most consumers now prefer coffee because of the relaxed experience offered by the branded coffee chains. Initially, the trends emerged in the urban areas of the country however, it is picking up in the rural areas also thus the future may provide a much bigger market to cater. It is however, important to note that due to current economic crisis in the country with the possibility of negative growth in 2009, the consumers may reduce their spending on something which can be produced in their own homes too. It is also critical to note that consumers are increasingly becoming ethical in nature and prefer such organizations which offer products and services which are based on the sustainability products. As discussed in the case study that Starbucks leave its water taps open all the time give the whole issue a more ethical dimension and indicate that the future consumer buying patterns may be shift towards having more ethically responsible organizations with an strong sense of conserving the natural resources of the planet. Starbucks is predominately American in taste and it has been strong speculated that the growth can doubled if the taste is tailored according to the European flavor preferred in EU region. Europe, as a region has a very strong tradition of drinking coffee according to their own individual tastes and consumers are certainly missing that element into the coffee cup offered by Starbucks thus the product development trends may be directed towards creating the coffee tastes which suit the European consumers. Significance to Starbucks The market intelligence or market research is critical for the success of the firm because it provides them a larger base of information to decide upon where to invest or not thus market information basically provides insight into as to how to spend their money wisely and the information is used to the maximum benefit of the firm. (Callingham).From a marketing perspective, understanding the market is one the key steps in order to make an entry into the market. Understanding the market therefore provide a deeper insight into the size of the market. Based on this, marketers often tend to segment the same into different niches according to their individual target market based on different factors such as demographics, psychographics etc. As discussed above that almost 20 million people living in UK belong to working class with different levels of incomes earned therefore Starbucks has virtually a market which has 20 million customers to satisfy and with the increase in trends for preferring coffee over the traditional non-alcoholic drinks such as tea and fruit juices, the