New York: Blackstone Group LP, manager of the world’s largest private-equity fund, said it had a loss of $66.5 million in the first quarter as leveraged buyouts evaporated and the value of companies it owns declined.

The loss excluding some compensation costs was 6 cents a share, compared with a profit of $838.5 million, or 75 cents, a year earlier, the company said on Thursday in a statement.

Blackstone announced one LBO in the quarter, the $1.2 billion purchase of food distributor Performance Food Group Co of Richmond, Virginia, compared with $42 billion in deals a year earlier. The company, which went public at the peak of the buyout boom in June, has fallen 37% since.

“Everyone who thought that private-equity and hedge funds would be the sexy new entrants have been sorely disappointed,” said Benjamin Phillips, managing director of strategic analysis at New Yorkbased Putnam Lovell, an investment-banking unit of Jefferies Group Inc.

Source : DNA