"I don't think that creates some sort of systemic risk or risk to the U.S. economy. It's a very narrow part of the overall credit market that we play in," he said. Still, Baratta said he hoped for a correction in those credit markets. "I wish there was some reversion to mean in the cost and availability of credit because I think on the margin that is driving up valuations in the market we play in," he said. Generally, Baratta remained bullish on the opportunity for private equity firms like Blackstone despite the relatively high cost of buying companies. "I do believe that our ability to control the exit, buy good companies, intervene in them to drive up earnings and cash flow, will I think enable us to outperform all the other asset classes," Baratta said. Still, he noted that Blackstone had slowed the pace of its investments given high valuations. Baratta said his Blackstone unit had invested $1 billion to $1.5 billion in company buyouts the first half of 2015, a rate that is "a lot slower" than in previous years. Publicly traded Blackstone managed $310 billion overall as of March 31.
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"I don't think that creates some sort of systemic risk or risk to the U.S. economy. It's a very narrow part of the overall credit market that we play in," he said. Still, Baratta said he hoped for a correction in those credit markets. "I wish there was some reversion to mean in the cost and availability of credit because I think on the margin that is driving up valuations in the market we play in," he said. Generally, Baratta remained bullish on the opportunity for private equity firms like Blackstone despite the relatively high cost of buying companies. "I do believe that our ability to control the exit, buy good companies, intervene in them to drive up earnings and cash flow, will I think enable us to outperform all the other asset classes," Baratta said. Still, he noted that Blackstone had slowed the pace of its investments given high valuations. Baratta said his Blackstone unit had invested $1 billion to $1.5 billion in company buyouts the first half of 2015, a rate that is "a lot slower" than in previous years. Publicly traded Blackstone managed $310 billion overall as of March 31.
