There have been so many stories in the news lately pointing to a downturn in the private equity boom that I worry about getting repetitive in covering them. But here's a new one for today: Carlyle Capital, a fund being floated by the famed Carlyle Group, confirmed that it will price shares at around $19, down from the previously announced range of $20-$22.
Carlyle hopes to raise about $300 million on the Euronext to invest in products including residential mortgage-backed securities and corporate loans.
The unimpressive demand can be attributed to continuing concerns about the lending market, but I also suspect that investors just aren't finding the big private equity firms as exciting as they did, say, six months ago. Shares of The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) have performed poorly since their debut last Friday, hitting a new all-time low today of $28.75, and finishing the day at $29.27, down 1.41%.
There have been continuous rumors that other private equity firms were mulling IPOs but given the lackluster IPOs thus far, it seems likely that the talk could start to die down. On the other hand, some insiders may want to cash out before more investors turn against them.
