News Update: Blackstone Group Says Debt Markets Have Thawed Enough For $10 Billion Buyouts

“The Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX) announced Thursday that the debt markets have recovered to the point at which the door for a billion buyout has been opened and is now a possibility. Private equity deals hit a rough patch after the credit crisis cut off access to financing, but the credit market has now thawed and many funds have a large amount of cash on their balance sheets. Blackstone’s senior managing director, Garrett Moran, said Thursday that debt markets had rebounded and that it might now be possible to deal with billion of debt. “”[That means] there could be a billion buyout, in the not too distant future, somewhere, somehow,”" Mr. Moran said. “”That’s in the realms of today’s market. Opportunities to buy things are pretty good.”" Year-to-date, private equity deals have totaled 0.5 billion, more than double the volume from the same period a year ago. Meanwhile, on a global basis M&A has totaled .78 trillion, up 21% from a year ago. SmarTrend currently has Blackstone in a Downtrend. Since 2008, SmarTrend subscribers trading Blackstone using our alerts outperformed the stock by 183%. We are monitoring these developments and will alert subscribers to any change in trend.”