Carlyle closed two multi-billion dollar deals in the first quarter alone: its $3.7 billion buyout of
Though Blackstone closed the seventh-largest deal of the quarter, its $654 million buyout of
Blackstone Senior Managing Director Garrett Moran described the recent deal environment with words like “quiet” and even “hum-drum” at a Reuters Global Mergers and Acquisitions Summit today in Reuters’ Times Square offices. There aren’t enough companies willing to sell at agreeable prices, and there’s a mix of confidence among sponsors, he said.
Carlyle’s confidence in global macro-economic trends buttresses its willingness to write big checks again. Low interest rates, government stimuli, growth in emerging markets, and record corporate profits thanks in part to Great Recession-inspired cost reductions are among the reasons for the firm’s positive outlook, as Peter Clare, co-head of the firm’s U.S. buyout group, recently told Buyouts.
On the sidelines of the Reuters Summit in New York, Moran told Buyouts Blackstone isn’t as confident as some firms that have struck multi-billion dollar deals lately. He didn’t name Carlyle, but he agreed that Blackstone has a more pessimistic outlook, without going into details. “It’s just what we see,” he said. “There’s no one [reason].”