The Blackstone Group generated a higher profit in the first quarter as it reaped gains from selling its holdings.
Blackstone, the biggest of the publicly traded private equity firms, said on Thursday that its economic net income â€" a measure of profit that includes unrealized gains from investments â€" rose 30 percent to $814 million in the first three months of the year. The earnings amounted to 70 cents a share, beating the estimate of 55 cents by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
Private equity firms have been taking advantage of buoyant stock markets to sell their investments and collect performance fees. Blackstone, the first of the big private equity firms to report first-quarter results, said its performance fees were $779 million in the quarter, an increase of 29 percent from a year earlier.
The firm’s distributable earnings, a metric that reflects the cash it generates and can give to shareholders, rose 24 percent to $485 million.
Still, Blackstone said its investment income, which includes unrealized gains or losses, fell 14 percent in the quarter to $116 million. Its private equity and real estate segments, traditionally strong performers, both reported lower investment income.
But performance fees helped make up the difference. In private equity, Blackstone said its economic income more than tripled to $319 million.
Investors entrusted more money to Blackstone, helping push its assets under management to $272 billion, a 25 percent increase from the previous year’s quarter.
