Blackstone Compensation Revealed

The Blackstone Group just filed another amended S-1 for its upcoming IPO, in which it disclosed plans to sell around 133.33 million common units at between $29 and $31 per unit. This would give Blackstone a market cap in excess of $33.62 billion, if it were to price at the top of its range.

But it won’t be the market cap that has tongues wagging this morning. Instead, it will be the compensation for top Blackstone executives — which had been left blank in prior filings.

Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman pulled down $398.3 million for calendar year 2006, which would place him only behind Steve Jobs on the list of highest-paid CEOs (according to Forbes). For funny-money context, Ken Lewis of Bank of America scored just under $100 million, while Jaime Dimon (JPMorgan), Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs) and Richard Fuld (Lehman) all made under $60 million.

But that’s not all. Schwarzman is expected to receive an additional $449 million via the IPO, or up to $677 million if Blackstone’s underwriters exercise their over-allotment. And he’d still own a 24% stake in the firm (valued at upwards of $8 billion).

And other top Blackstonians aren’t doing too badly either. Chairman Pete Peterson made $212.9 million last year, will receive around $1.9 billion from the IPO and will retain a 4% ownership stake. Other 2006 earnings included $97.3 million for president and COO Hamilton “Tony” James, $45.6 million for vice chairman J. Tomlinson Hilland $17.4 million for CFO Michael Puglisi.

It’s probably worth noting that these incredibly-high checks actually pale in comparison to top hedge fund managers, although they will obviously come closer if Blackstone’s post-IPO pop is anything close to what Fortress experienced…