blair + carlyle = dough

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/3276585/Tony-Blair-earns-12m-since-leaving-Downing-Street.html

Tony Blair earns £12m since leaving Downing Street

Tony Blair has become the most expensive public speaker in the world, with his earnings since leaving Downing Street thought to have topped £12 million.

Last Updated: 10:08AM GMT 29 Oct 2008


The former Prime Minister travels around the world on speaking engagements, and can command up to $250,000 (£157,000) for a 90 minute speech. He works exclusively through the blue-chip Washington Speakers Bureau.

Mr Blair has made £4.6 million from his memoirs, around £2 million from his role with investment bank JP Morgan, £500,000 from Zurich Financial Services asw ell as £84,000 of taxpayers money to run a private office and an annual pension of £63,468.

He has earned more money from speeches than Bill Clinton, the former US president, did in his first year after leaving office, The Times reported.

The paper said there is fear at the United Nations that Mr Blair's focus on commercial interests is jeopardising his unpaif role as Middle East envoy.

Such is the demand for Mr Blair, that he has a two-year waiting list for bookings, with clients prepared to pay $250,000 (£157,000) for a typical speech of roughly 90 minutes.

"He is one of the biggest stars in the world. Who else is there?" said Max Markson, the public relations organiser who has taken Mr Clinton, Cherie Blair and Nelson Mandela to Australia.

Mr Blair has become a particular favourite with the Washington-based Carlyle Group. Next month he will address a conference of its European investors in Paris about "geopolitics". He addressed a similar conference for Carlyle in Dubai in February.

Carlyle Group is a leading private equity investor in the military. Its board has been graced by both Presidents Bush and its former European chairman was Sir John Major.

a fund tied to carlyle group sunk

Carlyle Capital expects banks to seize some $16B in
assets

Joseph Altman, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

March 13, 2008

NEW YORK - Carlyle Capital Corp. said it expects creditors to seize all of the fund’s remaining assets after unsuccessful negotiations to prevent its liquidation, sending its shares plunging. The Amsterdam-listed fund shook financial markets last week after missing margin calls from banks on its US$21.7 billion portfolio of residential-mortgage-backed bonds. Carlyle’s troubles have amplified fears that billions of dollars of depressed mortgage-backed securities will flood the market, reducing their value even further. More than $5 billion of Carlyle’s securities have already been sold, but the fund tried to negotiate with the banks to prevent the liquidation of the remaining $16 billion.
« Although it has been working diligently with its lenders, the company has not been able to reach a mutually beneficial agreement to stabilize its financing, » Carlyle said in a news release. Shares tumbled 94 per cent to 18 cents in Amersterdam. The shares have lost more than 98 per cent of their value this year and traded at $12 just last week. Carlyle posted the securities as collateral under repurchase agreements, so if the value of the securities fall, the lender has the right to ask for more collateral - a margin call - to secure the loan. If the borrower does not meet the margin call, the lender may sell the security.
The value of mortgage-backed securities plummeted as U.S. home prices fell and foreclosures surged, prompting the banks to ask Carlyle for more than $400 million in additional capital. The fund was unable to come up with the money, prompting lenders to start foreclosing on the securities.
As of Wednesday, Carlyle said it has defaulted on about $16.6 billion of its debt, and the rest is expected to go into default soon.
Carlyle Capital Corp. is one of 55 funds managed by the Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle Group, one of the largest private equity firms in the world with US$76 billion in assets.
Carlyle Group « participated actively » in the fund’s negotiations with its lenders to refinance its portfolio and was prepared to provide substantial additional capital if sustainable terms could be achieved, the fund’s statement said.
But hopes for refinancing fell apart after some lenders said the value of the collateral had declined further, which would result in additional margin calls Thursday of about $97.5 million.
Carlyle Capital is registered in Guernsey, a U.K. dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy, but managed by New York-based executives. It was the first Carlyle Group fund to go public, at $19 a share in July on the Euronext exchange in Amsterdam.
Trading of the fund’s shares was suspended last week after tumbling more than 50 per cent to $5 apiece on the news that the fund wasn’t able to meet the margin calls.

carlyle supports sarkozy

Carlyle poaches Olivier Sarkozy

Independent.co.uk Nick Clark

Tuesday, 4 March 2008

The French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ratings may be plummeting, but his half-brother’s star continues to rise in the world of financial markets as he prepares to take a senior role at the buyout company Carlyle.

Olivier Sarkozy, 38, is to join Carlyle as co-head and managing director of its recently launched global financial services division. He will be based in New York, and starts next month.
Mr Sarkozy, who is believed to be on good terms with the President despite not attending his recent wedding to the actress and model Carla Bruni, arrives from the investment banking giant UBS, where he was joint global head of financial institutions. David Rubenstein, one of Carlyle’s founders, called it a « remarkable addition » to the buyout group’s financial services team, which was set up in June.
Olivier Sarkozy expressed his « great sadness » at leaving UBS, but added that the opportunity to help Carlyle establish a new global practice was too compelling. Carlyle remains a client of the Swiss bank. « I will continue to work with UBS in an advisory capacity and welcome UBS’s support of Carlyle’s financial services investment efforts, » he said.
Mr Sarkozy, who has focused his entire career on the financial institutions sector, has worked on mega-deals including the $35bn (£17.6bn) sale of MBNA to Bank of America in 2005. He joined UBS in 2002 after defecting from arch-rival Credit Suisse.
UBS is not replacing Mr Sarkozy. His co-head of financial institutions, John Cryan, will take over the role fully.
A spokeswoman for Carlyle said the appointment had no political motivations.
Nicolas and Olivier are related through their father, a Hungarian immigrant, although they did not grow up together.
President Sarkozy, who took office in May last year, has seen his approval ratings fall after a divorce and remarriage and a slanging match with a visitor to an agricultural show.