By Ryan Dezember
Blackstone Group LP on Thursday said its fourth-quarter profit
declined 11% from a year ago, yet its results exceeded Wall
Street's expectations as the firm set full-year records for several
metrics.
The New York firm reported fourth-quarter profit of $551
million, or 90 cents a share, down from $621 million, or $1.05 a
share, in the same period last year.
Blackstone's fourth-quarter economic net income was $1.45
billion, or $1.25 a share, down from $1.54 billion, or $1.35 a
share, a year ago. Still, the result topped Wall Street's estimates
for the profitability measure, which includes unrealized gains as
well as cash earnings. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters
anticipated economic net income of 92 cents a share.
The firm's private-equity and soon-to-be-spun-out financial
advisory unit posted gains in economic net income while its credit,
hedge fund and real estate businesses reported declines in the
measure.
Firmwide, fourth-quarter fee revenue rose 10% to $716 million,
and 13% for the year to $2.7 billion.
Blackstone's share of deal proceeds, or performance fees, during
the quarter was $1.32 billion, down from $1.69 billion the same
period a year ago. For the year, Blackstone's slice of deal gains
totaled $4.4 billion, up 23% from 2013.
"Looking forward, we see continued momentum across all of our
businesses as the environment for both investing opportunistically
and harvesting more seasoned assets remains attractive," said
Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone's chairman and chief executive.
Blackstone, the world's largest private-equity firm, reported
assets under management of $290 billion, up from $266 billion a
year ago.
Meanwhile, its distributable earnings, the portion of profits in
which shareholders can get a slice, were $1.13 billion in the
fourth quarter, up from the year earlier $821 million.
Blackstone said it would pay a dividend of 78 cents for the
quarter, an increase from 58 cents a year ago. That brings the
firm's payout for 2014 to $2.12, well above the firm's previous
record of $1.34, set in 2013.
Blackstone's shares, which gained 8.2% last year, closed up
0.44%, or 16 cents, at $36.74 on Wednesday, their highest ever
closing price.
Write to Ryan Dezember at ryan.dezember@wsj.com
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