The Blackstone Group is set to spin off its financial advisory division, according to a company news release.
The unit, which advises companies and large investors, is expected to be a new publicly traded company by March of next year. It will be run by Paul J. Taubman, who previously ran investment banking at Morgan Stanley.
“Blackstone began as an advisory firm nearly 30 years ago,” stated Stephen A. Schwarzman, Blackstone’s Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder. “The decision to spin off these businesses is possible because of our success in growing them over the past 30 years.”
Blackstone (BX) was founded in 1985.
Corporate spin offs are a la mode right now, with recent high-profile corporate splits coming at eBay(EBAY), Hewlett Packard (HPQ) and Symantec (SYMC).