Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity firm, has reported a 4% increase in distributable earnings for the final quarter of last year on the back of an increase in assets sales across real estate credit and hedge funds, according to a report by Reuters.
Distributable earnings – cash used to pay dividends to shareholders – rose to nearly $1.4bn in the three months to 31 December, from $1.3bn in the same period in 2022, which equates to $1.11 per share, ahead of the average analyst estimate of 95 cents.
The company’s net profit from asset sales rose 16% to $424.8m, despite high interest rates, economic uncertainty and market volatility continuing to weigh on the ability of PE firms to cash out of their investments.
During the fourth quarter, the value of Blackstone’s opportunistic real estate portfolio lost 3.8% while corporate private funds gained 3.5% and private credit and liquid credits fund added 3.9% and 3.3% respectively. The firm’s hedge funds, meanwhile, gained 2.3%.
The benchmark S&P 500 index gained 11.2% over the same period.