Blackstone banker says 'golden years' ahead for private equity.(BUSINESS & FINANCE NEWS: UNITED STATES/AMERICAS)(Brief article)

The next two to three years should be strong for private equity, says Chinh Chu, senior managing director/chemicals at The Blackstone Group (New York), a private equity firm. "If you think of 2008 and 2009 as the trough, 2010 to 2012 will be golden years for private equity," Chu said at a meeting of Societe de Chimie Industrielle in New York last week. Blackstone expects returns on capital for the whole industry to average from "the mid-20 percent to the mid 30s," he adds.

Private equity activity had been constrained by instability in the credit markets, but that has eased relatively quickly. Overall volume in the debt market stood at $317 billion in 2010, higher than the …