Business: Blackstone to launch Asia-focused Blackstone Altius advisors

New York & Hong Kong (BUSINESS WIRE) - The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) today announced that Aaron Nieman will be launching Blackstone Altius Advisors, a new event-driven strategy focusing on opportunities in the Asia Pacific region. A global, highly experienced investment team will be headquartered in Hong Kong, with additional professionals based in Tokyo, Mumbai, and New York.

Mr Nieman, a Senior Managing Director joined Blackstone from S.A.C. Capital Management, where he was a Managing Director in the Canvas Capital Management division. At S.A.C., Mr Nieman was instrumental in creating a successful investment team responsible for merger arbitrage and event-driven investments in the Asia Pacific region.

Before that, Mr Nieman was largely responsible for building Lehman Brothers' Tokyo-based Global Trading Strategies Division (formerly known as the Risk Arbitrage Division), focusing on Asia Pacific investments. Mr Nieman began his career at Lehman Brothers in New York.

Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman, CEO and Co-founder of the Blackstone Group, said, "Aaron has a superb history of developing teams and investing in Asia. He will add greater depth and intellectual capital to Blackstone's wide range of alternative investment businesses, and we are delighted that he has chosen to join us."

Antony Leung, Chairman, Blackstone Greater China, added, "As Blackstone continues to aggressively seek opportunities within Asia, Aaron and his team will provide additional investment capability that will bolster our presence in the region."

"Blackstone has a superior global alternative investment platform. It also employs some of the best professionals in the industry. The synergies that exist within Blackstone's various businesses will provide us with a significant advantage investing in the Asia Pacific markets," said Aaron Nieman, Senior Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of Altius Advisors.

Mr Nieman has recruited an experienced and talented team of investment professionals to Altius, including Christopher Pesce as Chief Operating Officer. Mr Pesce was formerly Global Head of Prime Brokerage at Bank of America and, before that, with Goldman Sachs both in New York and Hong Kong.

In addition to Blackstone Altius Advisors, Blackstone's other businesses in Asia include its corporate private equity fund (Blackstone Capital Partners), its real estate opportunity fund (Blackstone Real Estate Partners), its fund of hedge funds business and two closed-end mutual funds (The India Fund and The Asia Tigers Fund).

The Blackstone Group

The Blackstone Group L.P. is a leading global alternative asset manager and provider of financial advisory services. Its alternative asset management businesses include the management of corporate private equity funds, real estate opportunity funds, funds of hedge funds, mezzanine funds, senior debt funds, proprietary hedge funds and closed-end mutual funds. The Blackstone Group also provides various financial advisory services, including mergers and acquisitions advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement service.

Further information is available at www.blackstone.com
The Blackstone Group New York
Peter Rose or John Ford +1 212 583 5000
rose@blackstone.comford@blackstone.com
or London
Sophia Harrison or Helen Winning 44 20 7451 4000
harrison@blackstone.comwinning@blackstone.com

Business: Blackstone Real Estate Partners to invest in Synergy

Blackstone Real Estate Partners to invest in Synergy, India's leading development/project management firm

Bangalore, India - Blackstone Real Estate Partners, an affiliate of The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE: BX) announced today that it had agreed to invest approximately $18 million for a minority stake with board representation in Synergy Property Development Services Private Ltd.

Formed in 2003, Synergy is now one of the top project and construction management companies in India and currently has over 500 employees across nine Indian offices, with international offices in Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.

Synergy, which is based out of Bangalore, has delivered over 20 million square feet of real estate and is presently managing over 100 million square feet across various asset classes including office, retail, residential, hotels and hospitals.

The company also has plans to expand into infrastructure projects such as airports.

Synergy specializes in architectural design and fitouts, complete project management and turnkey contracts.

The company's forte is managing the entire process from start to finish and ensuring timely project delivery.

Its portfolio of projects include well known developments such as the Medicity in Gurgaon, India's largest hospital cluster development, Select Citywalk, a premium retail development in Delhi, the HCC-ICICI Tech Park and Runwal Town Centre in Mumbai, the Park Hyatt hotel in Chennai, and the Manyata Business Park and Embassy Golf Links in Bangalore, two of the largest and most successful business parks in India.

Sankey Prasad, Managing Director of Synergy said: "Started by a group of young architects and engineers, Synergy has created a leading position in the market by tying our success in the design and project management of large, prestigious projects to the delivery of top quality construction on time and on budget. With a qualified, proactive and experienced staff base, and aided by industry leading retention rates of our staff, the strength of Synergy is in its people."

Chad Pike, Senior Managing Director and London-based co-head of Blackstone's real estate group, said: "We are excited to be
doing this innovative deal and about teaming up with the best project manager in India as we build our business in the region. In the longer term, we believe there will be attractive real estate investment opportunities that follow from this partnership."

Tuhin Parikh, Managing Director of Blackstone's real estate group in Mumbai added: "We look forward to using Blackstone's global platform to support the continued growth of Synergy as it delivers on its long-term growth plan."

Sankey Prasad commented: "Our vision for partnering with Blackstone is to combine our individual strengths and build a strong platform to deliver world class products in the Indian and global real estate market.

"In addition, part of the proceeds from this transaction will make possible a wealth creation and retention program for each and every employee of Synergy, so that we can continue to foster our entrepreneurial culture as we grow."

About The Blackstone Group

The Blackstone Group L.P. is a leading global alternative asset manager and provider of financial advisory services.

Its alternative asset management businesses include the management of corporate private equity funds, real estate funds, funds of hedge funds, mezzanine funds, senior debt vehicles, proprietary hedge funds and closed-end mutual funds.

The Blackstone Group L.P. also provides various financial advisory services, including corporate and mergers and acquisitions advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement services.

Blackstone's Real Estate group numbers more than 60 investment and asset management professionals with broad experience across most real estate categories, including hotels, office, residential, retail, and other commercial properties. The group has completed more than 225 separate investments in North America and Europe with a total transaction value of approximately $132 billion since 1992.

Most recently the group opened offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Mumbai to expand Blackstone's real estate business in Asia, and closed Blackstone Real Estate Partners VI with capital commitments totalling $10.9 billion, creating the largest real estate opportunity fund ever raised. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com.

Synergy Property Development Services Pvt. Ltd.
Tel: +91 80 4112 0425 - 26www.synergyind.com or The Blackstone GroupSophia Harrison, +44 (0)20 7451 4295
harrison@blackstone.com or IPAN Public Relations and Public AffairsVinod Moorthy, +91 98 2104 6806 Vinod.Moorthy@ipan.com

India Fund announces final results of semi-annual repurchase order

New York (BUSINESS WIRE) - The India Fund, Inc. (NYSE: IFN; the "Fund") announced the final results of the Fund's semi-annual repurchase offer for its shares of common stock. The repurchase offer and withdrawal rights expired on Friday, March 14, 2008. The Fund offered to repurchase up to 5% of its outstanding shares of common stock for cash at a price approximately equal to net asset value as of March 24, 2008. As of Friday, March 14, 2008, 42,516,770.8348 Fund shares were outstanding.
Approximately 4,071,660.2142 shares were validly tendered and not withdrawn prior to the expiration of the Fund's repurchase offer.

The repurchase amount of 5% of Fund shares represents approximately 2,125,838 shares outstanding. The shares accepted for tender will receive cash at a repurchase offer price of $44.0216, which is equal to the Fund's net asset value per share of $44.92 as of March 24, 2008, less a repurchase fee of $0.8984 per share. Cash payment for the repurchased shares will be issued on or before March 28, 2008. After the repurchase offer, the Fund will have approximately 40,390,932.8348 shares outstanding.

The Fund is a closed-end management investment company that seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in Indian equity securities. The Fund conducts semi-annual repurchase offers and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the trading symbol "IFN."

Blackstone Asia Advisors L.L.C. serves as the Investment Manager to the Fund. The Investment Manager is an affiliate of The Blackstone Group L.P.

Information on the Fund can be obtained on the Blackstone website (www.blackstone.com) or by calling the Fund's toll-free phone number at 1-866-800-8933.

This press release may contain statements regarding plans and expectations for the future that constitute forward-looking statements within the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking and can be identified by the use of words such as "may," "will," "expect,""anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "continue" or other similar words.
Such forward-looking statements are based on the Fund's current plans and expectations, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning such risks and uncertainties are contained in the Fund's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Blackstone Asia Advisors L.L.C.1-866-800-8933