For a mega private equity firm like Blackstone (BX), there's a need to get liquidity on a mega scale. So this week, the firm prepared for one of its holdings, Travelport, to go public. The deal could be worth as much as $3 billion.

Blackstone will float the deal on the London Stock Exchange. There will also be the issuance of 7.2% of the stock to Government of Singapore Investment Corp. (for about $225 million).

The Blackstone Group (BX) is one of the world's largest private equity real estate investors, with a global portfolio of $23.7 billion. The firm also has extensive hotel holdings. Some of the brands include Hilton, La Quinta, Waldorf-Astoria, Boca Raton Resort & Club and the Trianon Palace Versailles.

In fact, as financing warms up -- and valuations remain attractive -- Blackstone is starting the year by boosting its holdings. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), the firm is angling to control Highland Hospitality. This was done by making a clever purchase of outstanding debt from Wachovia.

With assets of over $96 billion, the Blackstone Group (BX) needs to get liquid on many deals to generate competitive returns for its investors. This means being aggressive with IPOs. In fact, it looks like 2010 will be fairly active for the private-equity powerhouse.

The latest deal from Blackstone? Well, this week the firm put together an IPO filing for Graham Packaging Co. The estimated size of the proposed deal is $350 million.

While there was an uptick in the IPO market during the past couple months, it looks like things are cooling down. It seems that investors are holding off from riskier investments until next year.

Unfortunately, this is not good news for Team Health Holdings (TMH), which launched its IPO Wednesday. The company planned to issue 20 million shares at a range of $14 to $16. Instead, Team Health was only able to fetch $12 each for 13.3 million shares. The stock price was up 43 cents in morning trading.

Controlled by the Blackstone Group (BX), Pinnacle Foods is a packaged foods company whose brands can be found in about 80% of the households in the U.S. The portfolio includes Duncan Hines baking mixes and frostings, Vlasic pickles and Swanson frozen dinners.

Well, Pinnacle will get even bigger; that is, the company -- along with the financing from Blackstone -- will purchase Birds Eye Foods for roughly $1.3 billion. There will also be debt financing from Barclays Capital (BCS), Credit Suisse (CS), BofA Merrill Lynch (BAC), HSBC and Macquarie Capital.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks:

• Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF) lower Q3 results still topped expectations and sent shares higher.
• Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) posted much better-than-expected Q4 earnings, the first profit in a year.
• AstraZeneca (AZN) received an analyst's downgrade due to concerns over its earnings prospects.
• Blackstone Group (BX) received an analyst's upgrade following the company's Q3 results.
• Blockbuster Inc. (BBI) widened its net loss in Q3 and revenue and same-stores sales declined.
• Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (CLNE) shares declined after its Q3 numbers fell short of expectations.
• Consolidated Water Co. Inc. (CWCO) earnings prospects for 2010 earned it an analyst upgrade.

Going into the summer, it looked like the IPO market was poised for a resurgence. For example, the Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) said that it planned on taking eight companies public.

Despite the enthusiasm, things haven't panned out. According to the Wall Street Journal [a paid publication], five of the last nine deals for October priced below their ranges. In fact, last week AEI wasn't even able to pull off its offering.

What has Blackstone (NYSE: BX) been doing with all those theme parks it's been buying? Well, the answer is becoming a bit clearer now. The private equity firm is getting ready to take theme park operator Merlin Entertainments public early next year.

Several investment banks have already been called to advise on the transaction, including Citigroup (NYSE: C), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB), UBS (NYSE: UBS), and Nomura (NYSE: NMR). If all goes as planned, the deal could be good for $3.33 billion.

In the U.S., the prevailing sentiment is that the consumer is tapped out. And, even for those that have money, there will continue to be a good deal of frugality.

So, it would seem that theme parks would suffer, right?

Perhaps not. This is the thinking of Stephen Schwarzman, who is the chief of the Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX). Interestingly enough, he's doubling down on theme park investments, according to Reuters.com.

Up until the credit crisis, private equity firms had it made. They had plenty of leverage to play with and could load up their acquisition targets with it. So, they could realize a fantastic return on equity, mitigate their own risks, and show that they were the studs of the Street.

Then, all that went away. Credit markets dried up, and private equity companies lost their acquisition fuel. The numbers aren't as big as they used to be, but it looks like the private equity market is back in action.

The private equity industry has been through the worst, but now it seems the situation is taking a turn for the better. Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone (NYSE: BX) expects deal flow and IPOs to bounce, saying the economy is showing "more than green shoots" of recovery.

Schwarzman, speaking at the Super Return Middle East conference in Dubai, doesn't expect another slip into recession, but the full recovery will take time, for all the same reasons you've been reading on BloggingStocks for a while: tighter lending standards; uncooperative consumers who won't spend beyond their means and so on.

The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX - option chain) shares are rising today on reports that the buy-out firm is planning to unload a number of its portfolio companies, including TeamHealth, which provides outsourcing services for the health-care industry, and Merlin Entertainments Group, of Europe, which owns Legoland and Sea Life. Up to eight IPOs and five sales to private equity companies are in the works. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on BX.

Blackstone opened Monday at $15.50. In morning trading the stock hit a low of $15.50 and a high of $16.18. As of 11:15, BX was trading at $15.79 up 0.94 (6.3%). The chart for BX looks bullish.

In the U.S., the outsourced healthcare professional staffing market is about $50 billion. And, it is likely to grow because of the complexity of regulations and cost pressures.

One of the largest outsources in the market is Team Health Holdings, which generated $1.33 billion in revenues last year. In fact, this week the company filed to go public.

The past two years have been terrible for private equity firms. But, now we're seeing signs of life.

If fact, this week there was a liquidity event. That is, the Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) and Lion Capital have received a binding offer to sell Orangina Schweppes to Suntory (a major Japanese drinks company). It appears that the price tag comes to $3.82 billion.

According to the Wall Street Journal, China's government recently has pushed development of its local private-equity industry so that Chinese investors can get in on the country's private-equity deals. To that end, Chinese officials have tried to lure foreign money managers to raise funds from local investors.

Hong Kong-based First Eastern Investment Group, which plans to raise six billion yuan through a new wholly owned Shanghai subsidiary, and Asian brokerage CLSA Ltd., which plans to raise a 10 billion yuan fund through a joint-venture with state holding company Shanghai Guosheng Co., are just the latest to establish local-currency private-equity funds in Shanghai.