Fee-related earnings, which Blackstone generates from lucrative management and advisory fees, rose 12 per cent to $1.2 billion. Photograph: GettyBlackstone, the world’s largest private equity firm, said on Thursday that its first-quarter distributable earnings rose 1 per cent year-on-year supported by growth in fee-related earnings that was partly offset by a decline in income from asset divestments.
That translated to distributable earnings per share of 98 cents, which was slightly higher than the average Wall Street analyst estimate of 96 cents, according to LSEG data. During the quarter, Blackstone’s opportunistic real estate funds were flat at 0.3 per cent, corporate private equity funds appreciated by 3.4 per cent, liquid credit funds gained 2.5 per cent and its hedge funds added 4.6 per cent. By contrast, the benchmark S&P 500 rose 10.2 per cent over the same period.