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By 2024, the wealth of US private equity magnates jumped more than $56 billion as shares of Blackstone, Apollo and KKR hit new highs.
The stock has increased. Private equity Pioneers like Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman and KKR founders Henry Kravis and George Roberts have created new billionaires in the industry ahead of the expected deregulation from the incoming Trump administration, which could lead to a boom in business and assets by 2025.
Among the seven largest U.S. private equity firms listed, shares held by the industry’s top executives and founders totaled more than $56 billion, led by management. Black stoneThe world’s largest options manager, according to the Financial Times.
Blackstone’s top executives saw their market value rise 50 percent to $214 billion by 2024, with their shares up $13.5 billion.
His stock was moved by The development of the assetsRaised over $1tn. In September 2023, Blackstone became the first private equity group to be included in the S&P 500 index.
Analysts expect Blackstone’s fund for wealthy private investors in real estate, credit and private equity to pay dividends by 2025, boosting profitability. Its performance puts it at more than 40 times its expected valuation over the past 12 months to distributable earnings, a proxy for the group’s cash flow.
Much of the growth in executive ownership is attributable to Blackstone’s CEO. SchwarzmanThis year, their stock rose to more than $11 billion. President Jonathan Gray’s holdings are worth billions, putting his stake at around $7.5 billion.
It also means that two other top executives — head of private equity Joe Baratta and chief financial officer Michael Chan — hold more than $1 billion in stock, according to Blackstone’s proxy statement.
KKR shares have performed the best of any large private equity group in 2024. It was added to the S&P 500 in June.
The profit share of co-founders Kravis and Roberts both exceeded $12 billion. Co-CEOs Scott Nuttall and Joe Bey have seen their stake rise to $2.7 billion since taking the helm in October 2021, thanks to a 30 percent average annual return in KKR stock.
Apollo Global, which was added to the S&P 500 in December, is set to double its stake in 2024, bolstering the stake of CEO Mark Rowan and co-founders Leon Black and Josh Harris, who will leave the company in 2021. And profit has created a big wind a New leadership Now mostly paid in stock in Apollo.
James Belardi, co-founder and CEO of Apollo’s insurance unit, which runs about $350 billion, saw the value of Apollo shares rise above $1 billion this year, while Apollo presidents Scott Kleinman and James Zelter own shares worth more than $500. mn, according to the annual report. The two were In 2017, they were awarded a large stock grant as part of their promotion, and Rowan was lined up to co-lead Apollo with President-elect Donald Trump as US Treasury secretary.
Apollo’s next-generation leadership has also benefited from the rising stock price. In September 2023, Apollo issued $550mn of restricted stock units to John Zito’s leadership team, VP of Credit Investments, Atene President Grant Kvalheim and two senior private equity partners, Matt Nord and David Sambur. The value of that award has roughly doubled to more than $1 billion.
However, in recent months, executives such as Kleinman, Belardi, Zelter and Rowan have sold large blocks of Apollo stock or expressed interest in doing so.
Top executives at Aris, TPG and Blue Owl see their stock holdings rise to more than $4 billion by 2024, according to FT calculations, enhanced by a 50-65 percent stock gain.
In addition to stock gains, private equity managers get a big windfall from quarterly gains on their stocks. Overall, the top executives of the seven companies received nearly $3 billion in dividends this year, according to FT calculations.
