“Payouts for the top executives in private equity have rocketed into the stratosphere, thanks to a soaring stock market and shrewd maneuvers by their firms in the aftermath of the financial crisis.”
“But the millions upon millions in earnings disclosed in recent days were so great that the same executives may not be able to reap quite so much in the future. Some of the dynamics that enabled these princely payouts are now posing a daunting challenge for private equity’s deal makers, who must reload their profit machines by finding cheap deals when stock indexes are soaring.”
“The founders of the top four publicly traded private equity firms took home $2.6 billion in 2013, according to recent filings. Leon D. Black, the chief executive of Apollo Global Management, personally made $546.3 million, more than twice his take a year earlier. Stephen A. Schwarzman, the head of the Blackstone Group, took home $452.7 million, also more than double what he made in the previous year.”
“The three founders of the Carlyle Group, a private equity giant based in Washington, together earned $749 million, while the two cousins who co-founded Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Henry R. Kravis and George R. Roberts, each made more than $160 million. These payouts are largely dividends and they include any profits from the executives’ personal investments in their firms’ funds.”
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Read full New York Times DealBook article here.
