Blackstone’s Assets Soar Above $500 Billion in Topping Peers

(Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Group LP’s assets under management crossed over the $500 billion mark for the first time, fueled by its prodigious fundraising machine.

Key Insights

• Blackstone, the largest alternative asset manager, has epitomized the industry’s fundraising muscle. In January, the firm said it expected to gather about $100 billion this year. Blackstone amassed $42.9 billion in the quarter, driving assets under management to a record $511.8 billion, according to a statement Thursday.
• Private equity, the bedrock unit at the firm led by Stephen Schwarzman, got a lift from the stock market rally in the first quarter. The group gained 4.6 percent in the quarter, spurred by its public holdings, according to the statement.
• Investment firms have had to work hard to find deals in a bull market to deploy their piles of dry powder. Blackstone spent $11.8 billion in the quarter, a bit more than its quarterly average from last year.

Digging Deeper

• Blackstone’s distributable earnings rose 7.2 percent to $538 million, or 44 cents a share, from $502 million, or 41 cents, in the year-ago quarter. The results missed the average estimate of 52 cents from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
• Dry powder, or undeployed capital, increased to $132.6 billion from $112.9 billion last period, spurred by fundraising for the latest flagship funds.

Market Reaction

• Blackstone’s shares rose 9.5 percent in pre-market trading. They are up 21 percent this year through Wednesday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Heather Perlberg in Washington at hperlberg@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Vincent Bielski, Melissa Karsh

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