By Chibuike Oguh
(Reuters) – Blackstone Inc said on Thursday its first-quarter distributable earnings jumped 63% as a strong performance from its real estate and credit businesses offset a weak showing from its hedge funds unit.
The world’s largest manager of alternative assets saw distributable earnings, which represent the cash used to pay dividends to shareholders, rise to $1.9 billion from $1.2 billion a year earlier.
That resulted in distributable earnings per share of $1.55, which exceeded an average estimate of $1.06 per share from analysts estimates compiled by Refinitiv.
Blackstone said it generated $23.2 billion in proceeds from asset divestments across its portfolio. That included the sale of its majority stake in medical services provider Apria Healthcare to Owens & Minor Inc in a $1.6 billion take-private deal.
During the quarter, Blackstone spent $22.8 billion on new acquisitions, including its $6.4 billion takeover of Australian casino operator Crown Resorts and a $5.8 billion deal to take real estate income trust Preferred Apartment Communities Inc private.
For its quarterly fund performance, Blackstone said its real estate opportunistic and core plus funds appreciated by 10.3% and 7.9%. Its private credit funds gained 1.7% while its private equity portfolio rose 2.8%. That compares with a decline of nearly 5% for the benchmark S&P 500 index.
Blackstone said earnings at its hedge funds unit, the world’s largest, fell to $110.8 million, down from $157 million a year earlier, driven partly by lower management fees and performance revenues.
Under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), Blackstone reported a net income of $1.22 billion, down 30% from $1.75 billion a year earlier owing to an uptick in compensation expenses and a slowdown in investment income.
Total assets under management rose to a record $915 billion, driven by strong fundraising and bringing Blackstone closer to its goal of managing $1 trillion in assets this year. Unspent capital stood at $139.3 billion.
Blackstone declared a quarterly dividend of $1.32 per share, compared with $0.82 per share in the same quarter last year.
(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
