黑石集团（Blackstone Group）成立于1985年，最初是一家并购咨询公司，由三位前雷曼兄弟（Lehman Brothers）银行家合伙组建。日前，黑石宣布，计划分拆这块相当于历史遗产的咨询业务。很久以前，黑石旗下的私募股权、房地产等直接投资业务的规模就已超过咨询业务。此外，黑石的重组咨询和第三方融资业务也将被分拆。所有这些业务都将与PJT Partners精品咨询公司合并，后者由前摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）银行家保罗•陶布曼掌舵。交易预计将于2015年初完成，黑石股东将拥有这家合并后上市公司的65%初始股份。

    PJT Partners未来与黑石在业务竞争上不受任何限制，比如，如果它打算最终开设一份直接投资业务的话。除此之外，也不存在为像公司CEO史蒂夫•施瓦茨曼这样的黑石股东设定的撤出计划。

    黑石称，之所以这样做是因为咨询业务与投资业务存在潜在利益冲突，导致咨询业务的发展受到种种人为限制，即便公司一直以来尽最大努力设立适当的“防火墙”。例如，黑石的重组集团当时甚至都未投标雷曼兄弟的破产业务，就是因为担心公司信贷和房地产业务可能会投标。

    这种冲突确实存在，已损及黑石的咨询业务。黑石的信贷平台GSO Capital Partners和其新建立的50亿美元多资产类别平台Tactical Opportunities的加速增长令情况雪上加霜。

    但似乎也有一些更深层的因素：那就是黑石咨询业务的不景气已持续相当长一段时间了。

    2012年和2013年，尽管全球并购额大幅增长，但黑石并购咨询业务却连续两年亏损。或许这可以解释为何2013年8月黑石咨询业务在职的57位高级投资专业人士，如今仅剩33位（根据黑石网站的数据）。离职者中包括6位高级董事总经理：丹尼斯•法布尔（伦敦）、吉特什•嘉德亚（伦敦）, 科马尔•卡亚（伊斯坦布尔）、乔恩•考普鲁维茨（纽约）、汤姆•米德顿（纽约）和汤姆•斯托达德（纽约）。不清楚这些人离职是因为并购业务员工受够了潜在利益冲突的种种束缚，还是黑石认为需要清理门户。离职后的空缺很多现已补充新血。

    2014年第2季度，并购咨询业务开始略有反弹，但基本上都被重组咨询业务的亏损所抵消。2012年、2013年重组咨询业务事实上呈现增长（值得一提的是，自2013年8月以来，重组咨询业务的24位高级员工目前仍有23位在职）。

    “他们有一个问题要问，”据一位熟悉情况的消息人士称，“并购咨询业务不景气已经有几年了，他们预计市场形势也不能支撑重组业务保持增长。当其他业务的增长都如此强劲之时，为什么还要做这些？”

    确实，去年黑石的业务总体增长率为63.9%，而咨询业务的增长率仅为14.6% [正如日前彭博(Bloomberg)的凯蒂•贝纳指出的那样]。如果算上咨询业务去年仅占黑石营收的6.7%，这一分拆会变得更有意义。

    或许这就是史蒂夫•施瓦茨曼所要传达的信息，日前他就此次分拆向黑石员工发送了一封语音邮件。他告诉员工们，有时候为了这块业务自身的成功，为了投资业务的成功，不得不牺牲一些财务数据。换言之，是时候砍掉这块僵死的业务了，希望换一个更受看重的环境，能重新恢复生气。（财富中文网）

    译者：早稻米

    The Blackstone Group began life in 1985 as an M&A advisory boutique, formed by a trio of former Lehman Brothers bankers. Today Blackstone announced plans to spin off that historical vestige, which long ago was eclipsed in size by its direct investment practice in areas like private equity and real estate. In addition, Blackstone BX -0.57% will unload its restructuring advisory and its third-party fundraising units. All of it will be merged with PJT Partners, an existing advisory boutique led by former Morgan Stanley banker Paul Taubman. The deal is expected to close sometime in early 2015, with Blackstone shareholders to own an initial 65% stake in the combined, publicly-traded company.

    PJT Partners will not have any restrictions on it in terms of future competition with Blackstone, such as if it wants to eventually launch a direct investment business. There also is no scheduled divestment plan for Blackstone shareholders like firm CEO Steve Schwarzman.

    Blackstone says it is making this move because the advisory business has been artificially hampered by potential conflicts of interest with the investment side, even though the firm historically has taken great pains to say that appropriate firewalls are in place. For example, Blackstone’s restructuring group never even bid for the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy business, because of concerns that the credit and real estate sides of the house might bid on Lehman assets.

    No doubt the conflicts are real, and have hurt Blackstone’s advisory business. Moreover, they have been exacerbated by the accelerated growth of Blackstone’s credit platform (GSO Capital Partners) and its new $5 billion multi-asset class platform (Tactical Opportunities).

    But there seems to be something deeper going on here: Namely, Blackstone’s advisory business has been struggling for quite some time.

    Blackstone’s M&A advisory business had consecutive annual revenue losses in 2012 and 2013 — even though global M&A volume increased substantially over that same period. Perhaps that explains why of the group’s 57 senior investment professionals as of August 2013, just 33 remain (according to Blackstone’s website). Among those who have left are six senior managing directors: Denis Fabre (London), Jitesh Gadhia (London), Kemal Kaya (Istanbul), Jon Koplovitz (New York), Tom Middleton (New York) and Tom Stoddard (New York). It is unclear if the departures were caused by dissatisfaction among M&A staffers borne of being handcuffed by potential conflicts of interest, or if Blackstone felt it needed to clean house. Many of the positions have since been filled by new hires.

    The M&A advisory business began to rebound slightly in Q2 2014, but that was largely offset by losses in its restructuring advisory business — the one area that actually had grown in 2012 and 2013 (worth noting that 23 of 24 senior restructuring staffers from August 2013 are still around).

    “They have a problem,” says a source familiar with the situation. “The M&A advisory business has been getting killed for years, and they don’t believe the market conditions are going to be right for restructuring to keep growing. Why deal with all that when the rest of your business is growing so strong?”

    Indeed, Blackstone’s overall growth rate was 63.9% last year, whereas the overall advisory business came in at just 14.6% (as pointed out earlier today by Bloomberg’s Katie Benner). And given that the advisory business represented just 6.7% of Blackstone’s revenue last year, the divestiture makes even more sense.

    Perhaps that’s what Steve Schwarzman was getting at this morning, in a voicemail he left for Blackstone employees about the split. He told them that financial terms sometimes are the victims of their own success and of the success of their investment areas. Or, put another way, time to cut the dead weight and hope that it can come back to life in a more focused environment.