Blackstone Nears Full Exit From Bumble After 98% IRR as Shares Fall 96% Since IPO

Corporate ActionManagement
โดย Yahoo Finance·US·Read original
Summary · why it matters

Blackstone Inc. is reportedly finalizing a full exit from Bumble Inc. after roughly doubling its money on the dating app, even as Bumble's shares have fallen about 96.1% since its 2021 IPO. Blackstone and venture firm Accel invested $2.1 billion in 2019 to acquire a majority stake in Bumble's parent company MagicLab at a $3 billion valuation, and Blackstone generated a 98% internal rate of return by systematically reducing its exposure, according to a Business Insider report. In late 2020 the firm used Bumble's debt to issue a $334 million dividend to itself, then cut its stake from 83.6% to 53.2% at the IPO, netting nearly $2 billion, and sold another $1 billion of stock in 2021 when shares traded above $50. A deal with UBS allowing sales of just under 5% of the company each quarter positions Blackstone to exit fully by early next year, and its remaining 22.4 million shares are now worth approximately $66.75 million, versus the $1.084 billion a similar volume of shares yielded in 2021. Blackstone has also vacated its two board seats, with Jonathan Korngold stepping down in June and Martin Brand in August, while Bumble faces a 16.4% year-over-year decline in paying users; M Science analyst Chandler Willison told Business Insider that a private equity group is the most obvious potential buyer for Bumble.

Impact on stocks 3

Communication Services▼ · 1 stocks
Bumble Inc
BMBL
▼ NegativeDemandrelevance

Bumble faces a 16.4% year-over-year decline in paying users, a direct hit to end-customer demand.

Artificial Intelligence▲ · 1 stocks
Blackstone Group Inc
BX
▲ PositiveCapitalrelevance

Blackstone is finalizing a full exit from Bumble after generating a 98% IRR on its investment.

Financials▲ · 1 stocks
UBS Group AG
UBSG
± MixedCapitalrelevance

UBS has a deal allowing Blackstone to sell just under 5% of Bumble each quarter, a facilitating role rather than a driver.

Off-coverage companies 2

AccelPrivate± Mixed
relevance

M Science LLCPrivate± Mixed
relevance

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