Inside the Carlyle Group

Inside The Carlyle Group

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New York Times, 3/5/01:

...Traveling with the fanfare of dignitaries, Mr. Bush and Mr. Baker [use] their
extensive government contacts to further their business interests as
representatives of the Carlyle Group, a $12 billion private equity firm
based in Washington that has parlayed a roster of former top-level
government officials, largely from the Bush and Reagan administrations, into
a moneymaking machine. In a new spin on Washington's revolving door
between business and government, where lobbying by former officials is
restricted but soliciting investments is not, Carlyle has upped the ante and
taken the practice global. Mr. Bush and Mr. Baker were accompanied on
their trips by former Prime Minister John Major of Britain, another of Carlyle's
political stars. With door-openers of this caliber, along with shrewd
investment skills, Carlyle has gone from an unknown in the world of private
equity to one of its biggest players. Private equity, which involves buying up
companies in private deals and reselling them, is a high-end business open
only to the very rich. Over the last decade, the Carlyle empire has grown to
span three continents and include investments in most corners of the world.
It owns so many companies that it is now in effect one of the nation's
biggest defense contractors and a force in global telecommunications.

Its blue-chip investors include major banks and insurance companies,
billion-dollar pension funds and wealthy investors from Abu Dhabi to
Singapore. In getting business for Carlyle, Mr. Bush has been impressive. His
meeting with the crown prince was followed by a yacht cruise and private
dinners with Saudi businessmen. And Mr. Bush led Carlyle's successful entry
into South Korea, the fastest-growing economy in Asia. After his meetings
with the prime minister and other government and business leaders, Carlyle
won a tough competition for control of KorAm, one of Korea's few healthy
banks. The steady flow of politicians to lucrative private-sector jobs based
on their government contacts is a familiar Washington tale. But in this case,
it is being played out for more dollars, on a global stage, and in the world of
private finance, where the minimal government rules prohibiting lobbying by
former officials for a given period are not a factor. These rules say nothing
about potential conflicts when former government officials use their
connections and insights for financial gain, and they may attract more notice
now that George W. Bush is president. Many of those involved with Carlyle,
which invests largely in companies that do business with the government or
are affected by government regulations, have ties to the Oval Office.

For instance, Frank C. Carlucci, a Reagan secretary of defense who as much
as anyone is responsible for Carlyle's success, said he met in February with
his old college classmate Donald H. Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, and
Vice President Dick Cheney, himself a defense secretary under former
President Bush, to talk about military matters - at a time when Carlyle has
several billion-dollar defense projects under consideration.... "Carlyle is as
deeply wired into the current administration as they can possibly be," said
Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a
nonprofit public interest group based in Washington. "George Bush is getting
money from private interests that have business before the government,
while his son is president. And, in a really peculiar way, George W. Bush
could, some day, benefit financially from his own administration's decisions,
through his father's investments. The average American doesn't know
that and, to me, that's a jaw-dropper."

It is difficult to determine exactly how much money the senior Mr. Bush and
Mr. Baker have made. Mr. Baker is a Carlyle partner, and Mr. Bush has the
title senior adviser to its Asian activities. With a current market value
of about $3.5 billion on Carlyle's equity and with the firm owned by 18
partners and one outside investor, Mr. Baker's Carlyle stake would be worth
about $180 million if each partner held an equal stake. It is not known
whether he has more or less than the other partners. Unlike Mr. Baker, Mr.
Bush has no ownership stake in Carlyle; he is an adviser and an investor and
is compensated by obtaining stakes in Carlyle investments.
Carlyle executives cited, for example, Mr. Bush's being allowed to put money
he earns giving speeches for Carlyle into its investment funds. Mr. Bush
generally receives $80,000 to $100,000 for a speech. He sits on no
corporate boards other than Carlyle's. Carlyle also gave the Bush family a
hand in 1990 by putting George W. Bush, who was then struggling to find
a career, on the board of a Carlyle subsidiary, Caterair, an airline-catering
company....

With $12 billion from investors, Carlyle claims to be the nation's largest
private equity fund and makes money by investing in undervalued companies
and reselling at a profit.... The California state pension fund invested
$305 million with Carlyle, and the Texas teachers pension fund - whose
board was appointed when George W. Bush was governor - gave Carlyle
$100 million to invest in November. Carlyle also works as a financial adviser
to the Saudi government....Carlyle has done well for its investors, returning
an average of 34 percent a year over the last decade, in line with other
private equity funds. It has done this by buying what it knows best -
companies that are regulated by the government. Nearly two-thirds of its
investments are in defense and telecommunications companies, which are
affected by shifts in government spending and policy. ...Carlyle has
become the nation's 11th largest defense contractor, owning companies that
make tanks, aircraft wings and a broad array of other military equipment. It
also owns health care companies, real estate, Internet companies, a
bottling company and even Le Figaro, the French newspaper.... And its
access extends well beyond American shores. In Europe, Carlyle has
assembled an advisory board that besides Mr. Major includes Karl Otto P÷hl,
former president of German's Bundesbank, and the past or present chairmen
of B.M.W., Hoffman-LaRoche, Nestlé_, LVMH-Moït Hennessy, Louis Vuitton
and Aerospatiale, the French Airbus partner. Carlyle's Asia advisory board,
which helps raise money and finds and reviews deals, includes former
President Fidel V. Ramos of the Philippines, the former prime minister of
Thailand and the executive director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
The former South Korean prime minister Park Tae Joon was also an adviser
to Carlyle....
In an office adorned with photographs of Mr. Carlucci and the politically
mighty - he sits beneath an Oval Office picture of himself and Mr. Reagan -
Mr. Carlucci makes it clear that his extensive government and global ties are
as fresh as ever. "I know Rumsfeld extremely well," Mr. Carlucci said in an
interview. "We've been close friends throughout the years. We were college
classmates."...