Blackstone Group LP on Thursday said its first-quarter profit
more than doubled from a year ago on increased selling of corporate
stakes and properties by its private-equity and real-estate
businesses as the firm topped Wall Street expectations by a healthy
margin and said it would pay out the largest quarterly dividend in
its history.
The New York firm reported first-quarter profit of $629 million,
or $1.01 a share, up from $266 million, or $44 cents a share, in
the same period last year.
Blackstone's first-quarter economic net income was $1.6 billion,
or $1.37 a share, up from $814 million, or 70 cents a share, a year
ago. 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 $1.04 a share.
Economic net income at the firm's private-equity segment was
more than twice what it was a year earlier while its real-estate
business posted nearly double the profit measure as both units
continued to cash out of investments profitably.
"Realization activity continued to accelerate while, at the same
time, we've been raising and investing funds at an unprecedented
rate, creating the basis for future value," said Stephen
Schwarzman, Blackstone's chairman and chief executive.
Blackstone's credit and hedge-fund businesses reported lower
economic net income than during the same time a year earlier.
Blackstone's soon-to-be-spun-out financial-advisory unit pared its
losses during the quarter.
Firmwide, first-quarter fee revenue rose 4% to $615 million.
Blackstone's share of deal proceeds, or performance fees, during
the quarter was $1.7 billion, twice the $779 million during the
same period a year ago.
Blackstone, the world's largest private-equity firm, reported
assets under management of $310 billion, up from $272 billion a
year ago and $290 billion at the year end.
Meanwhile, its distributable earnings, the portion of profits in
which shareholders can get a slice, were $1.2 billion in the first
quarter, more than double the year prior's $485 million.
Blackstone said it would pay a dividend of 89 cents for the
quarter, an increase from 35 cents a year ago and its highest ever
quarterly payout.
Blackstone shares closed up 2.5%, or 98 cents, to $41.02 on
Wednesday, the latest in a series of all-time highs reached this
year as the stock has gained 21%.
Write to Ryan Dezember at ryan.dezember@wsj.com
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