Carlyle Group, the private-equity firm that owns Hawaiian Telcom Inc., said returns from its buyout funds will shrink after a “humbling” 2008, Bloomberg News Service reported today.

“After several years of unprecedented growth, product innovation, geographic expansion, capital deployment and investment gains, our world changed dramatically,” Carlyle founders David Rubenstein, William Conway and Daniel D’Aniello said in the firm’s annual report published today. “2008 was a humbling experience for us.”
Three of Carlyle’s companies have filed for bankruptcy protection or entered administration since the start of 2008. SemGroup LP, a U.S. energy-storage business in which Carlyle owned 29.3 percent in a joint venture with Riverstone Holdings LLC, went bankrupt last year as bets on energy markets failed. Hawaiian Telcom Communications Inc. filed for bankruptcy in December. German auto-parts maker Edscha AG’s European operations filed for insolvency in February this year.