Latest news with #JonGray
The Star
a day ago
- Business
- The Star
Figma targets $18.8 billion valuation in US IPO after bumping up price range
FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 21, 2025. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File photo (Reuters) -Figma raised the proposed price range for its U.S. initial public offering on Monday and is now aiming for a valuation of $18.8 billion, in the latest sign of strong investor appetite for high-growth technology stocks. The design software firm, along with some of its investors, is looking to raise $1.18 billion by selling nearly 37 million shares priced between $30 and $32 each. That compares with its prior proposed price target of between $25 and $28 each. The new valuation puts Figma closer to the $20 billion it had commanded when Adobe agreed to buy it. The Photoshop maker abandoned the deal in December 2023 after facing antitrust roadblocks in Europe and the UK. The revised terms also reflect investors' growing comfort with trade uncertainty, and their willingness to back favored companies. Figma reported $228.2 million in revenue for the three months ended March 31, compared with $156.2 million a year earlier, and its net income jumped three-fold to $44.9 million. After hitting a speed bump when the tariffs were unveiled in April, IPOs have staged a steady recovery. Bankers expect activity to accelerate once the summer lull ends and the fall window opens, driven by strong demand for high-growth listings. Top market heavyweights with a strong read on investor sentiment are also anticipating a more fertile environment. Last week, Blackstone's President and Chief Operating Officer Jon Gray said "the dealmaking pause is behind us." Figma, which is scheduled to price the deal on Wednesday, is expected to trade under the symbol "FIG" on the New York Stock Exchange the next day. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Allen & Company and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters of the IPO. (Reporting by Manya Saini and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
Time of India
5 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Blackstone preps for IPO surge, says pipeline stronger than 2021 peak
Blackstone is preparing more companies to go public than the record IPO year of 2021, President and Chief Operating Officer Jon Gray said, in a sign of growing market optimism as equities push higher despite lingering tariff worries. Trade deals by U.S. President Donald Trump have fueled hopes that his harsh rhetoric on tariffs could be a negotiating tool, while several recent listings have encouraged markets after a prolonged slowdown. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category others Digital Marketing healthcare Product Management Data Analytics Finance Management Technology Others CXO Leadership Data Science MCA PGDM Project Management Degree Data Science Design Thinking Cybersecurity Healthcare Public Policy MBA Artificial Intelligence Operations Management Skills you'll gain: Duration: 16 Weeks Indian School of Business CERT - ISB Cybersecurity for Leaders Program India Starts on undefined Get Details by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Gold Is Surging in 2025 — Smart Traders Are Already In IC Markets Learn More Undo CEO Steven Schwarzman, a long-time Trump donor, said investors should be patient and "give tariffs diplomacy a chance to work its way through the system", after Blackstone posted stronger-than-expected profit in the second quarter. "The environment we see emerging of lower short-term interest rates, less uncertainty and continued economic growth, combined with a pent-up desire to transact, is the right recipe to reignite M&A and IPO activity," Gray said. Shares of the world's largest alternative asset manager rose 3.2% and turned positive for the year after the earnings announcement. Live Events EARNINGS STRENGTH The company's second-quarter profit was also boosted by strong gains in its credit business. Blackstone drew total inflows of $52.1 billion, more than half of which went to the credit and insurance segment. The unit is a key driver of its growing influence in private credit, as more companies turn to investment firms for flexible financing. Total assets under management rose 13% to $1.2 trillion. Fee-related performance revenue more than doubled to $472.1 million, powered by a 16% growth in perpetual capital assets under management. Perpetual capital refers to long-term assets under management that does not have a fixed end date and cannot typically be redeemed by investors on demand. Money managers have struggled to offload some investments made while interest rates were low in recent years, resulting in a rise in funds that hold on to assets for longer. Fees tied both to those "evergreen" perpetual funds and growth in investments from wealthy individuals contributed to a rise in profit. "Underlying trends are more consistent with Blackstone's long-term track record, and sets a high bar for peers," analysts at TD Cowen wrote in a note. Distributable earnings, which represent cash that can be used to pay dividends, grew 25% to $1.6 billion, or $1.21 per share, for the three months ended June 30. It exceeded analysts' expectation of $1.10, according to data compiled by LSEG. Gray said Trump's reported aim to make private investments more accessible to retirement plans, where savers hold some $12 trillion, is "compelling". But Blackstone would wait and see if there is rulemaking on this, he added. Assets under management at the company's real estate division fell 3%, but segment distributable earnings grew 10%. Schwarzman said the business was showing promising signs. "The enormous need for debt and equity capital to build the infrastructure powering the artificial intelligence revolution has created extremely positive dynamics for our business," he said.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Blackstone Shocks Wall Street with $1.57B Profit Surge
Blackstone (NYSE:BX) just reminded Wall Street why it's still the heavyweight in private markets. In Q2, the firm reported a 25% jump in distributable earnings to $1.57 billionor $1.21 per shareeasily outpacing analyst estimates of $1.10. What drove the surprise? A surge in performance fees from Blackstone's perpetual capital vehicles, which don't need to sell assets to unlock incentive fees. These evergreen fundsespecially its retail-focused property and private equity platformsgenerated a 167% year-over-year boost in fee-related performance revenues. President Jon Gray pointed to these funds as a key strength in a sluggish deal exit environment, saying they've allowed Blackstone to capture meaningful upside even as realizations stay muted. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with BX. There's more to the story. Blackstone raised $52 billion in fresh capital during the quarter, with around 20% coming from private wealth channels. That influx helped push management fees up 13% and lifted assets managed for retail investors to $280 billionroughly one-fourth of the firm's $1.2 trillion AUM. Meanwhile, net flows in Blackstone's credit and insurance division led the pack again, continuing a trend that's outpaced other business lines over the past 12 months. While the traditional private equity business saw a 12% rise in net realizations, real estate fell 37% as the sector remains in a slow recovery. Gray noted the property market is improvingbut hasn't yet reached escape velocity. Still, momentum could be building. Gray flagged a growing deal pipeline now that the brief pause following President Donald Trump's Liberation Day tariffs has passed. Though net realizations in the second quarter were just 63% of what they were four years ago, Blackstone's platform could be positioning for new opportunities across asset classes. For now, its ability to generate sizable earnings from unrealized gainswithout needing a frothy exit marketcould offer a blueprint for navigating higher-rate environments. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Bloomberg
5 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Big Private Equity Managers Will Win 401(k) Race, Blackstone's Gray Says
The alternative asset industry's biggest players will likely come out on top once the US paves the way for Americans' 401(k)s to go beyond stocks and bonds, Blackstone Inc. President Jon Gray said. The White House has been readying an executive order to provide legal assurances to 401(k) plan managers to offer private markets funds, crypto and other alternatives as investment options.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Blackstone's No. 2 says dealmaking pause now 'behind us'
Blackstone (BX) President and Chief Operating Officer Jon Gray on Thursday became the latest high-ranking Wall Street executive to declare that a dealmaking freeze triggered by President Trump's tariffs is now firmly in the past. "We believe the dealmaking pause is behind us,' Gray, Blackstone's No. 2 executive behind CEO Stephen Schwarzman, told analysts Thursday, citing "the largest forward IPO pipeline since 2021." Schwarzman reinforced that sentiment, saying to the same analysts that "we are preparing a number of other companies for public offerings over the coming quarters." Blackstone's stock rose more than 4% Thursday. It is up a 4% so far this year, under performing major stock indexes that notched records Wednesday. The statements from top executives at Blackstone echo what the leaders of the nation's biggest Wall Street banks said last week. They repeatedly made it clear that their corporate clients are becoming used to the uncertainty surrounding trade and are moving ahead with plans to merge with other companies, raise debt, or go public anyway. "Boardrooms appear more accepting of ongoing uncertainty broadly," Morgan Stanley (MS) CEO Ted Pick said on July 16. Volatility "is going to, I suspect, be a feature, not a bug of the new world order and we will benefit from that," Citigroup (C) CEO Jane Fraser said on July 15. Three months ago, a sense of gloom hovered over Wall Street's first-quarter earnings season as bankers and private equity executives grappled with a halt in dealmaking and the market chaos that followed Trump's April 2 "Liberation Day" tariff announcement. That gloom has been replaced by optimism as Wall Street digests some red-hot IPOs and sizable mergers along with a deregulatory push in Washington, D.C. The latest reminder that the M&A market is heating up came Thursday when Union Pacific (UNP) confirmed advanced talks with Norfolk Southern (NSC) about a potential combination that would make the rail industry's largest deal ever. 'The environment we see emerging — lower short term interest rates, less uncertainty and continued economic growth, combined with a pent up desire to transact — is the right recipe to reignite M&A and IPO activity,' Blackstone's Gray added Thursday. New negotiations and trade pacts with certain countries are also helping Wall Street get more comfortable with the uncertainty. 'It remains to be seen how individual negotiations will play out, but the direction of travel is toward more resolutions," Schwarzman, a billionaire GOP donor who was one of Trump's biggest backers on Wall Street during the 2024 campaign, told analysts. "As the policy environment settles we expect transaction activity to benefit, including realizations greater clarity will lead to greater confidence for companies, financial sponsors and market participants," Scwharzman added. Blackstone's second-quarter earnings surpassed analyst expectations with its assets under management surging 13% to a record $1.21 trillion. Overall profits rose 72% to $764 million compared to the second quarter of last year. Of the firm's four asset management divisions, its credit and insurance group, which houses the firm's private credit unit, brought in half of the quarter's $52 billion of inflows. David Hollerith is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance covering banking, crypto, and other areas in finance. His email is Click here for in-depth analysis of the latest stock market news and events moving stock prices Sign in to access your portfolio
