Thursday, March 8, 2012

Carlyle Adds Investment Banks to Push IPO

Bloomberg reported The Carlyle Group added five investment banks to its original group of three.

Carlyle Group LP (CG), the private equity firm planning an initial public offering this year, added banks including Barclays Plc (BARC), Morgan Stanley (MS) and Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) to help with the sale, said people with knowledge of the matter. 

Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and UBS AG (UBSN) also will work on the offering, said the people, who declined to be identified because the process is private. Carlyle earlier hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Citigroup Inc. (C) and Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) to lead the IPO, according to regulatory filings. 
That's a passel of investment sales forces.  How much will Morgan Stanley board member Erskine Bowles buy in Carlyle stock?  Erskine is looking to make another fortune.  Does he see public shares of Carlyle as the way or is he holding out for public shares in another PEU, one that employs him and his son, Sam?

How about Citi's Peter Orszag?  Will he steer any of his millions in annual salary toward Carlyle's NASDAQ stock?

Who thought eight investment banks would be needed to sell a smidgen of Carlyle's equity?  With the PEU stench of Carlyle's IPO, I wonder if eight is enough.

Update 3-15-12:  The list of IPO underwriters is up to 18. It's a PEU hard sell.