He Who Laughs Last

Hard hit by the poor performance of its two largest divisions, private equity and corporate real estate, celebrity PE firm Blackstone has posted a 89% fall in its earnings in the final three months of 2007. Last year at the height of the buyout mania, the firm which essentially advises companies to go private, went public. The Chinese government was one of the investors who subscribed to that issue, a move hailed as a master stroke by many. India, they pointed out, had missed a trick by not using its ample foreign exchange reserves, to make similar investment. The Blackstone stock is now down 50% from its listing price. Mandarins of India’s central bank must be having a quiet laugh.