Blackstone IPO: CEO recently called public markets overrated

File this one under "CEOs say the darndest things."

Tonight, as we learn The Blackstone Group seeks to raise $4 billion in an initial public offering, I can't help but remember a headline I read less than a month ago. It was in The New York Times' DealBook: "Don't Hold Your Breath On A Blackstone IPO."

Nonetheless, Stephen Schwarzman reportedly complained at a European private equity conference on Feb. 27 that rival firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts had "destroyed the market" for anyone else, with its super-sized $5 billion IPO last year. His beef, then at least, was that the capital markets' appetite for private equity shares was sated by the KKR deal.

The Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin opined, " Mr. Schwarzman seemed uninspired by the notion of a buyout firm I.P.O. anytime soon," and quoted him saying (via Reuters), "I think the public markets are overrated."

Now it turns out that when Schwarzman made his comment, the process must have already been well underway. Blackstone's S-1 is more than 220 pages long and investment banking firms listed include
Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch & Co, Credit Suisse, Lehman Brothers and Deustche Bank Securities. These guys clearly have been talking a while.

Guess those wily bankers were able to get him to change his mind pretty darn quick. How many additional billions added to the deal did that take?