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Blackstone Profit Falls 89% on Credit Market Meltdown

 Blackstone Group LP, manager of the world’s largest buyout fund, said fourth-quarter profit plunged 89 percent after a “meltdown” in the credit markets and warned that getting loans for takeovers will be difficult in 2008.Profit excluding some compensation costs declined to $88 million, or 8 cents a share, from $808.1 million, or 72 cents, a year earlier, the New York-based company said today in a statement. That fell short of the average estimate of 20 cents a share by seven analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

“Difficult market conditions in the U.S. and Europe continue in 2008 and there is little visibility on when these conditions might improve,” Chairman Stephen Schwarzman said in the statement

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