Fortress shares fall below IPO price

Shares of Fortress Investment Group LLC today dipped below the price at which the hedge fund and private-equity manager filed its initial public offering in February. The stock dipped as low as $18.46 in morning trading, a tick below its debut price of $18.50 on Feb. 9. On its first day of trading, the stock surged over 67% to close at $31. Since that day, the performance of the stock has dwindled, weighted down by concerns about recent Beltway chatter about raising taxes on private equity firms, the sustainability of the leveraged-buyout boom and defaulting subprime mortgages. Shares of The Blackstone Group LP, a rival publicly traded private-equity firm, have experienced a similar cycle. Blackstone, which priced its shares at $31 apiece, saw a 17.5% increase on their first day of trading. This afternoon, at $23.76, shares of Blackstone are worth about 17% below their IPO price. As a result, private-equity firm Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts & Co. and hedge fund manager Ochs-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC, both of which had scheduled IPOs in the near-term, have postponed their plans, published reports said.