????黑石集團（Blackstone Group）成立于1985年，最初是一家并購咨詢公司，由三位前雷曼兄弟（Lehman Brothers）銀行家合伙組建。日前，黑石宣布，計劃分拆這塊相當于歷史遺產的咨詢業務。很久以前，黑石旗下的私募股權、房地產等直接投資業務的規模就已超過咨詢業務。此外，黑石的重組咨詢和第三方融資業務也將被分拆。所有這些業務都將與PJT Partners精品咨詢公司合并，后者由前摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）銀行家保羅?陶布曼掌舵。交易預計將于2015年初完成，黑石股東將擁有這家合并后上市公司的65%初始股份。

????PJT Partners未來與黑石在業務競爭上不受任何限制，比如，如果它打算最終開設一份直接投資業務的話。除此之外，也不存在為像公司CEO史蒂夫?施瓦茨曼這樣的黑石股東設定的撤出計劃。

????黑石稱，之所以這樣做是因為咨詢業務與投資業務存在潛在利益沖突，導致咨詢業務的發展受到種種人為限制，即便公司一直以來盡最大努力設立適當的“防火墻”。例如，黑石的重組集團當時甚至都未投標雷曼兄弟的破產業務，就是因為擔心公司信貸和房地產業務可能會投標。

????這種沖突確實存在，已損及黑石的咨詢業務。黑石的信貸平臺GSO Capital Partners和其新建立的50億美元多資產類別平臺Tactical Opportunities的加速增長令情況雪上加霜。

????但似乎也有一些更深層的因素：那就是黑石咨詢業務的不景氣已持續相當長一段時間了。

????2012年和2013年，盡管全球并購額大幅增長，但黑石并購咨詢業務卻連續兩年虧損。或許這可以解釋為何2013年8月黑石咨詢業務在職的57位高級投資專業人士，如今僅剩33位（根據黑石網站的數據）。離職者中包括6位高級董事總經理：丹尼斯?法布爾（倫敦）、吉特什?嘉德亞（倫敦）, 科馬爾?卡亞（伊斯坦布爾）、喬恩?考普魯維茨（紐約）、湯姆?米德頓（紐約）和湯姆?斯托達德（紐約）。不清楚這些人離職是因為并購業務員工受夠了潛在利益沖突的種種束縛，還是黑石認為需要清理門戶。離職后的空缺很多現已補充新血。

????2014年第2季度，并購咨詢業務開始略有反彈，但基本上都被重組咨詢業務的虧損所抵消。2012年、2013年重組咨詢業務事實上呈現增長（值得一提的是，自2013年8月以來，重組咨詢業務的24位高級員工目前仍有23位在職）。

????“他們有一個問題要問，”據一位熟悉情況的消息人士稱，“并購咨詢業務不景氣已經有幾年了，他們預計市場形勢也不能支撐重組業務保持增長。當其他業務的增長都如此強勁之時，為什么還要做這些？”

????確實，去年黑石的業務總體增長率為63.9%，而咨詢業務的增長率僅為14.6% [正如日前彭博(Bloomberg)的凱蒂?貝納指出的那樣]。如果算上咨詢業務去年僅占黑石營收的6.7%，這一分拆會變得更有意義。

????或許這就是史蒂夫?施瓦茨曼所要傳達的信息，日前他就此次分拆向黑石員工發送了一封語音郵件。他告訴員工們，有時候為了這塊業務自身的成功，為了投資業務的成功，不得不犧牲一些財務數據。換言之，是時候砍掉這塊僵死的業務了，希望換一個更受看重的環境，能重新恢復生氣。（財富中文網）

????譯者：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.