Blackstone Group LP’s share price down, to launch its own investment platform, signing on a team of traders

According to people familiar with the companys plans, the biggest investor in hedge funds in the world – Blackstone Group LP – is preparing to improve its 58-billion-dollar fund of hedge funds division. The companys unit, Blackstone Alternative Asset Management, intends to release its own investment platform in order to get the opportunity to hire individual hedge fund managers.

Blackstone Group LPs vice chairman Mr. Tom Hill said a couple of weeks ago in a statement, cited by Bloomberg: “We expect by the end of 2016 to have multiple billions in this new platform.” Mr. Hill was speaking exactly of the hedge-fund unit of the company, which has been expanded from 2 billion dollars in 2000 to more than 58 billion dollars at present.

As reported by the people with direct knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the process is still private, Blackstone Group LP is signing on a team of three traders to form the first fund of such kind. The team is to manage client capital and borrowed money that amount to about 500 million dollars in order to make bets on and against stocks in 2014.

Companys focus has been on investing in third-party funds and taking stakes in hedge-fund managers, while now it is shifting its strategy towards finding fresh and talented individuals in order to start its own teams of traders.

The new team of traders will be overseen and put under the valuation of Vice Chairman Hill along with Parag Pande and Gideon Berger, which joined the company in 2014.

Blackstone Group LP was 0.06% down to close at 33.44 dollars per share in New York yesterday, marking a one-year increase of 58.78%. According to data published by CNN Money, the 16 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Blackstone Group LP have a median target of 37.50, with a high estimate of 44.00 and a low estimate of 35.00. The median estimate represents a +12.14% increase from the last price of 33.44.