Leading private equity firm Blackstone hires at IIM Bangalore

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
July 28, 2016
Blackstone Group International, a globally recognized leading private equity firm, has recruited IIM-Bangalore's Post Graduated Programme student Mr Abhishek Agarwal for the firms London office.

This is the first time Blackstone has recruited at IIM-B. According to IIM-B, the selection followed a grueling process which included 2 written tests, a couple of interviews in Mumbai and 11 interviews at their London office.

Mr Agarwal is a topper from the PGP 2006 batch, informs IIM-B.

Mr. Agarwal says that Blackstone was top on his priority list. He already had an offer from the world's premier financial institution with an international posting, but chose to accept the Blackstone offer for a number of reasons. Chief among them was the work he would be doing which was a combination of finance, valuations and strategy while managing smaller teams, which work under him. He was also excited about the reputation of the firm and the caliber of the people he would be working with. The clincher was the fact that he would have the option of working in India after a one year's stint at the Blackstone London Office.

According to Mr. Agarwal Private Equity as a sector offers exciting opportunities, especially in India as the economy is booming, and he could not pass on an opportunity to be part of these exciting times.

Happy with the Blackstone placement, IIM-B says, "A highly sort-after firm, Blackstone is very selective in who it hires and from where. Having already come to IIM Bangalore for summer placements in November and very happy with the quality of students, Blackstone was eager to come back for final placements – for the very first time ever."

Adds IIM-B, "Blackstone sets high recruitment standards, as apparent by their selection process." Mr. Agarwal was grilled on finance fundamentals and valuation basics in his interviews apart from multiple personal interviews to gauge his fit into the firm.

Started in 1985 by Peter G. Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman, today Blackstone is a leading global alternative asset manager and provider of financial advisory services listed on the New York Stock Exchange with total assets under management of approximately $98.2 billion as of September, 2007.

In September 2007, the company had 65 senior managing directors and employed approximately 520 other investment and advisory professionals at the headquarters in New York and offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Paris, Mumbai, Hong Kong and Tokyo.