ButBlackstone is staying on the sidelines in real estate untilmarkets bottom out or the debt markets "crack a little bitmore". Blackstone's chief executive, Stephen Schwarzman, said thefirm expected the real estate market to bottom some time laterthis year and that he sees the most attractive opportunities insenior real estate debt. LEVERAGE SCARCE Blackstone's ability to do deals has been hurt by thefinancial crisis and shutdown of the credit markets. James said capital for buyouts is still scarce but thatBlackstone could obtain debt for deals if the transactions weremodest in scale.
He also said the firm, which bought its hedge fund businessGSO Capital in 2008, sees longer-term opportunities to makeacquisitions itself and sees consolidation in the alternativeasset management industry. "I think we're in the fortunate position of having achievedcritical mass in our businesses, and we have a strong balancesheet and a public currency so we're uniquely positioned to be aconsolidator in the business," James said. James said while there were not many opportunities to exitdeals, the firm is selling its investment in StiefelLaboratories Inc for 1.4 times the cost of the investment, or 40percent above what it paid two years ago. GlaxoSmithKline(GSK.L) said in April it would buy Stiefel for $3.6 billion. James said that Blackstone did not pitch to be one of thePPIP providers -- referring to the U.S.
government'spublic-private effort to dispose of toxic assets. Firms such asfixed-income managements have sought to be among the managersfor the public-private effort. Blackstone shares were up $1.75 or 14.4 percent at $13.91 onthe New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday afternoon, after risingas much as 17 percent earlier in the session. The shares havedoubled this year but are still down significantly from theirJune 2007 initial public offering price of $31.
(Reporting by Megan Davies; editing by John Wallace and MatthewLewis) Stocks | Mergers & Acquisitions | Global Markets | Funds News | ETFs News | Private Capital Stocks Mergers & Acquisitions Global Markets Funds News ETFs News Private Capital. Forward-looking statements by their nature involve substantial risks anduncertainties that could significantly impact expected results. Actual futureresults could differ materially from those predicted.
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is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.TheCompany is a leading manufacturer of steel fabricated wire products,industrial wire, billets and wire rod.Keystone also manufactures wire mesh,coiled rebar and steel bar.The Company's products are used in theagricultural, industrial, cold drawn, construction, transportation, originalequipment manufacturer and retail consumer markets.Keystone's common stockis traded on the OTC Bulletin Board (Symbol: KYCN).KEYSTONE CONSOLIDATED INDUSTRIES, INC. Downing, Jr., Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of KeystoneConsolidated Industries, Inc., +1-972-458-0028. WARSAW, May 6 (Reuters) - The first case of H1N1 flu has been recorded in Poland, PAP news agency said on Wednesday, quoting health sources "The virus A/H1N1 .. was confirmed .. The person's condition is not severe," PAP said. World health experts have warned of a possible pandemic after the outbreak of the virus in Mexico in April.Investors fear the virus will hamper efforts to revive the global economy.(Reporting by Kuba Jaworowski) Mexico Mexico. TORONTO (Reuters) - HudBay Minerals (HBM.TO) is not currently in negotiations to sell itself, but is actively looking at buying low-cost assets and would consider going far afield to do so, its chief executive said on Wednesday. Deals"There were some companies that were looking at HudBay... * Q2 EPS $0.77 beats expectations by 7 cents Stocks | Global Markets * Q2 rev $164.1 mln vs est $178 mln * Cuts FY rev view to $670-$695 mln * Keeps FY EPS view at $2.60-$2.85 * Shares fall 12 pct (Adds conference call details, share movement) May 6 (Reuters) - Powell Industries Inc (POWL.O), whichmakes equipment to control electricity, posted abetter-than-expected quarterly profit, but lowered itsfull-year sales outlook, sending its shares down 12 percent.