The revival of the private equity industry remains in full swing, as the Blackstone Group reported a 43 percent jump in fourth-quarter earnings over a year ago.
The alternative investment giant said on Thursday that it earned about $670 million for the quarter, as almost all of its businesses showed gains. For the year, the firm earned about $2 billion, up 30 percent.
That profit, reported as economic net income and includes unrealized gains from investments, amounts to 59 cents a share. That handily beat the average analyst estimate of 47 cents a share, according to Capital IQ.
Blackstone also reported $493.8 million in distributable earnings, an 177 percent gain from the year-ago period. The metric, which is becoming popular among publicly traded private equity shops, tracks how much these firms pay out to their limited partners
Over all, Blackstone’s assets under management rose 26 percent in the fourth quarter, to $210.2 billion.
Thursday’s announcement could augur wel for other private equity firms preparing their latest quarterly results. The industry has continued to benefit from low interest rates and improvements in the stock and credit markets, which have bolstered the value of Blackstone’s holdings and brightened the outlook for deal activity.
Stephen A. Schwarzman, Blackstone’s co-founder and chief executive, praised the results as the firm’s best since becoming a publicly company over five years ago.
“We’ve generated consistently strong investment performance for our limited partner investors across market cycles since our inception 28 years ago, and 2012 was no exception,†he said in a statement.
The strongest performers at Blackstone included its fund of hedge funds business, whose profit leaped 163 percent, and its core private equity arm, where profit rose 86 percent. The only laggard appeared to be re! al estate, the firm’s biggest division, where profits fell 2 percent despite an increase in assets under management.
