Blackstone Group LP (BX)

Blackstone vs. KKR Both good and both are global players. She likes the private equity space, and the way to invest here is through stocks like these. She plays this space through BAM. All have a strong global presence. Private equity will see continued secular growth with interest rates staying near zero. Large institutions are seeking returns in private equity and infrastructure and will invest more here.

The largest private equity company in the world. BX has raised a ton of money lately, but the trouble is how do they put this money to work? Low interest rates help, because they leverage a lot. They are in real estate, and loans, not just private equity--so well-diversified. Problem is, BX now competes heavily in private markets (with BAM-N, for example), an area which enjoys higher rates of return. There's a lot of money chasing fewer deals. However, BX is an incredibly well-run company.

It has been a fantastic global private equity business. They made a huge play at rolling up a lot of these industrial real estate portfolios across the world. They do all kinds of different asset allocations across the world. They announced they will convert from a partnership into a corp. so the share price increased due to anticipation of this being part of an index, thereby making all kinds of institutions need to own it because it is the index. He prefers ONEX-T to BX-N.

For CG-Q he has concerns about times when asset prices are bid up during strong market times. As an active asset manager, this can make their business more challenging. He would go for best in class in this category and that is BX-N.