Chapter 12
Not-So-Private Equity
Out of the Shadows
With the weight of its own secretive history bearing down, private equity is finally stepping out of the shadows. That’s how I ended up in Delaware City, Delaware, watching Tony James surrounded by politicians and workers in jumpsuits. It was October 2011, and the occasion was reopening a refinery owned by PBF Energy, a venture created and funded by Blackstone with private-equity energy specialist firm First Reserve. PBF bought the closed refinery in June 2010 from Valero, which had shuttered it a year earlier.
The biggest private-equity firms are now very much in the public eye, and seeing James that day in Delaware was notable not so much for what he said, but that he or any top Blackstone ...
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