Besting S&P
Distributable earnings, which reflect cash profits on asset sales and fund management fees, were $781.4 million, compared with $494.9 million a year earlier. Blackstone said it will pay stockholders a dividend of 54 cents a share on Aug. 7.
The firm’s private equity portfolio appreciated 2.8 percent in the quarter and its real estate holdings gained 5.4 percent, both exceeding the 2.6 percent gain posted by the S&P 500 index of large U.S. companies. Peers including Carlyle Group LP, KKR & Co. and Apollo Global Management LLC are scheduled to report results in the coming weeks.
Publicly traded private equity firms must mark their holdings to the market each quarter, even though their typical strategy is to hold assets for years. That makes economic net income, which in part reflects these unrealized changes in value, merely a snapshot of assets that may have a long runway before being sold.
Overseeing $371.1 billion across private equity, real estate, credit and hedge funds, Blackstone is viewed as a bellwether for the alternative-asset industry. Peter Grauer, chairman of Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, is a non-executive director at Blackstone.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.