The Carlyle Group is not yet publicly-traded, but is widely expected to take the plunge within a year or two. In the meantime, it has released the latest in a series of annual reports, which describes the firm's breadth of operations. Not the sort of in-depth info we'd get in an IPO prospectus, but still much more than most other privately-held firms disclose.

    Some highlights:

    • $106.7 billion in assets under management (as of 12/31/10)

    • $7 billion deployed in 2010 for new private equity/real estate investments

    • $7.5 billion returned in 2010 to investors in private equity/real estate, via 32 exits

    • $6.4 billion returned in Q1 2011 to investors in private equity/real estate

    • 990 professionals working in 30 offices in 19 countries

    • 84 funds managed, representing 1,350 investors from 75 countries

    Carlyle's report also touched briefly on its plans to acquire a majority stake in AlpInvest, a Dutch fund-of-funds manager with more than $43 billion in assets under management. The deal has been controversial within some private equity circles, since AlpInvest is an investor in funds managed by many of Carlyle's rivals.

    Carlyle reiterated that "AlpInvest will retain complete discretion over all investment decisions... [and] will also maintain an information firewall with Carlyle to provide safeguards for general partner, fund or deal-specific information." Still no explanation of what happens if certain situations require attention of the joint venture's board of directors, which includes both Carlyle and AlpInvest executives...