The Blackstone Group Prices $4.133 Billion Initial Public Offering

Blackstone announced today that the initial public offering of
133,333,334 common units representing limited partner interests in The
Blackstone Group L.P. has been priced at $31.00 per common unit. The
common units are expected to begin trading tomorrow, June 22, 2007, on
the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "BX." The Blackstone
Group has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to
20,000,000 additional common units at the public offering price less
underwriting discounts.

Blackstone intends to use a portion of the proceeds from the
initial public offering and the concurrent sale of $3 billion of
non-voting common units to an investment vehicle established by the
People's Republic of China with respect to its foreign exchange
reserve to purchase interests in its business from its existing
owners, to repay short-term borrowings, to provide capital to invest
in its existing businesses and to expand into complementary new
businesses and for other general corporate purposes.

Morgan Stanley and Citi are the global coordinators of the
offering and representatives of the underwriters and, together with
Merrill Lynch & Co., Credit Suisse, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank
Securities, joint book-running managers of the offering.

The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of
the final prospectus, when available, may be obtained by contacting
Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, 180 Varick Street, New York, New
York 10014, attention: Prospectus Department, or by e-mailing
prospectus@morganstanley.com, or Citi, Brooklyn Army Terminal, 140
58th Street, 8th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11220 (tel: 718-765-6732; fax:
718-765-6734). The final prospectus, when available, also may be on
the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at
http://www.sec.gov.

About The Blackstone Group

The Blackstone Group is a leading global alternative asset manager
and provider of financial advisory services. Its alternative asset
management businesses include the management of corporate private
equity funds, real estate opportunity funds, funds of hedge funds,
mezzanine funds, senior debt funds, proprietary hedge funds and
closed-end mutual funds. The Blackstone Group also provides various
financial advisory services, including mergers and acquisitions
advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement
services.