Blackstone Acquires International Gemological Institute (IGI)
By MYBRANDBOOK
Blackstone (NYSE:BX) announced today that private equity funds managed by Blackstone (“Blackstone”) have acquired International Gemological Institute (“IGI”) from Shanghai Yuyuan Tourist Mart (Group) Co., Ltd. (SHSE:600655), a subsidiary of Fosun, and Roland Lorie, who belongs to the founding family.
Founded in 1975 in Antwerp, IGI is a global leader in independent certification of diamonds, gemstones, and jewelry, with a global footprint of 29 laboratories and 18 schools of gemology across 10 countries. IGI is the world’s first gemological laboratory to hold ISO accreditation in both natural and lab-grown diamonds. Since 2005, IGI has pioneered the certification of lab-grown diamonds, paving the authentication and standardization of a rapidly growing industry.
Mukesh Mehta, a Senior Managing Director in Blackstone Private Equity Group, said: “IGI has spearheaded the certification of natural diamonds, lab-grown diamonds, and colored stones, becoming a global market leader and providing confidence to manufacturers, retailers, and consumers around the world. We are bringing the best of Blackstone to the business – our operational expertise, capabilities in technology, and global track record in building successful businesses to help the company expand its global footprint.”
Roland Lorie, Chief Executive Officer of IGI, said: “IGI has had a successful track record for close to 50 years since we founded the company, and we are pleased to entrust Blackstone to take IGI on to its next stage of development. IGI has been a pioneer in developing products adapted to manufacturers, retailers and consumers’ expectations. Under the patronage of Blackstone, we intend to get even closer to the consumer and to grow the business exponentially. The company’s management team is excited to welcome Blackstone and further cement and build upon our market-leading position with the help of Blackstone’s scale, expertise and global network.”
Kevin Shikun, Co-Chief Investment Officer of Fosun and Co-Chairman of Yuyuan, said: “It has been our pleasure to work with Mr. Roland Lorie and the management team driving IGI’s rapid growth in the past four years. Today, IGI’s business is more diversified and solid with a more globalized landscape. We believe IGI is about to embark on a new journey of rapid growth with Blackstone’s global synergy. As the flagship of Fosun’s consumer sector investments, Yuyuan is expecting positive impacts on its financials through this sale, and further focusing of resources on the company’s key strategies and projects.”
Deutsche Bank, Ernst & Young, Deloitte and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer acted as advisors to Yuyuan and Roland Lorie on the transaction. KPMG, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas acted as advisors to Blackstone.
Singapore to remove One-Time Passwords from Bank Accounts
According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, clients who utilise secur...
Is 375 million Airtel subscribers database breached?
When a hacker claims to have accessed and put up for sale a customer databa...
The government of India intends to construct a single portal f
A single portal will be launched by the Indian government to list all of it...
OpenAI offers GPT-4o, a faster model available to all users at
GPT-4o, a faster and more sophisticated AI model, is made available to all...
Icons Of India : ALOK OHRIE
Alok Ohrie leads Dell Technologies’ India business, overseeing Sales...
Icons Of India : Arundhati Bhattacharya
Arundhati Bhattacharya serves as the Chairperson and CEO of Salesforce...
ICONS OF INDIA : RISHAD PREMJI
Rishad Premji is Executive Chairman of Wipro Limited, a $11.3 billion ...
TCIL - Telecommunications Consultants India Limited
TCIL is a government-owned engineering and consultancy company...
ECIL - Electronics Corporation of India Limited
ECIL is distinguished by its diverse technological capabilities and it...
CERT-IN - Indian Computer Emergency Response Team
CERT-In is a national nodal agency for responding to computer security...
Indian Tech Talent Excelling The Tech World - NEAL MOHAN, CEO - Youtube
Neal Mohan, the CEO of YouTube, has a bold vision for the platform’s...
Indian Tech Talent Excelling The Tech World - Sundar Pichai, CEO- Alphabet Inc.
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc.,...
Indian Tech Talent Excelling The Tech World - JAY CHAUDHRY, CEO – Zscaler
Jay Chaudhry, an Indian-American technology entrepreneur, is the CEO a...