Carlyle Seeks IPO That Would Value Firm Below Blackstone, KKR

Carlyle Group LP (CG) is seeking to raise as much as $762.5 million in an initial public offering that would give the Washington-based private-equity firm less than half the market value of Blackstone Group LP. (BX)

Carlyle, the world’s second-biggest buyout firm by assets under management, will offer 30.5 million shares at $23 to $25 each, a regulatory filing today shows. At the top end of the range, the firm would be valued at as much as $7.6 billion, compared with about $16.5 billion for Blackstone, the biggest private-equity firm, and $9.8 billion for KKR & Co.

The IPO would follow last week’s offering by Oaktree Capital Group LLC (OAK), which raised less than planned and has dropped for three straight days. Firms such as Blackstone and Apollo Global Management LLC (APO) have also declined since their debuts. That performance, coupled with the difficulty of projecting earnings, may have persuaded Carlyle to value itself conservatively.

Carlyle’s IPO may price as soon as May 2. The firm had about $147 billion in assets under management as of Dec. 31, compared with about $166 billion for Blackstone. The New York-based firm, which went public at a market value of $33.5 billion in 2007, has since shrunk by half.