While the public screams about a Middle Eastern firm owning U.S. ports and a chunk of the NASDAQ stock exchange, two Carlyle Group deals sail under the radar. The first involved the sale of two U.S. aircraft operation companies to Dubai Aerospace. This got no, as in zero media attention.Just days ago, The Carlyle Group sold part of itself to a different UAE government owned company, the Mubadala Development Company. For 7.5% of Carlyle, Mubadala paid $1.35 billion after the D.C. based private equity firm offered a 10% discount.
So why are ports bad and aircraft operations good? Why is owning a chunk of a U.S. stock exchange concerning and but a piece of a PEU worth cheering about? And how does this all stay out of the news? It seems having the ex-Time Warner CEO on your payroll produces dividends...
