‘The King of Capital’ earned $734 million last year

Steve Schwarzman, cofounder of private-equity giant The Blackstone Group, is known in some circles as “The King of Capital.”

Here’s why.

Schwarzman made $734 million in 2015, according to Devin Banerjee at Bloomberg, who crunched the numbers on Blackstone’s annual report filed on Friday.

That includes his cut of deal profits, dividends on his stock ownership, salary, and other compensation.

Schwarzman, the subject of a book by David Carey and John Morris, “King of Capital,” ranks as the richest man in private equity, and one of the richest men in America.

He can be seen hobnobbing with public figures ranging from the pope to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The leveraged-buyout boss had humble beginnings, however. He studied at Yale before getting started on Wall Street in 1969.

That first stint didn’t last long, with Schwarzman later saying: “I had no economics. I had no ability to read a financial statement. I had never had accounting. They gave me an office and a secretary and some annual reports and assignments. I didn’t even know how to approach it.”

Now, he heads an alternatives behemoth. He told Business Insider late last year that he wants Blackstone to double in size.

You can read Bloomberg’s full story here.