CalPERS

Carlyle stake sales: 5% at ~$2B, then 7.5% at a $20B valuation

Asked when he finally felt financially secure, Rubenstein joked "maybe yesterday." Carlyle sold about 5% to CalPERS at a roughly $2-2.5 billion valuation, then 7.5% to Abu Dhabi's Mubadala at a $20 billion valuation, before going public.

“Maybe yesterday. It takes a while. I mean, when we were building the company, we ultimately sold a piece of it to CalPERS, I think about 5%, the California retirement system. And they valued the company at something being worth like $2 billion. The company was worth $2 billion or $2.5 billion. Nobody thought that a private equity firm in those days had franchise value and could be sold. But we sold 5% to CalPERS. That was probably 2009 or something like that. And then a few years later, we sold 7.5% to Mubadala, which was an Abu Dhabi investment arm that, and that valued the company at being worth $20 billion.”