CG Reports: A Look at Private Equity Earnings: BX, BLK, APO

Updated on

CG Reports: A Look at Private Equity Earnings: BX, BLK, APO

The Carlyle Group L.P. (NASDAQ:CG) announced their earnings for the first quarter of 2012 this morning. The asset management firm showed a drop in profits from the same period last year. The company earned $629.2 million in the period. The firm’s assets under management have largely increased in the period to $159.2 billion, almost double what it was dealing with last year. Under the separate measure of economic net income, one many investment firms prefer, the company earned $392 million in the three months.

In an investment environment that has been cruel to many in the financial and investment sector the firm remained optimistic. It is still generating returns and has a lot of cash to spread around left as of yet outside other investments. Publicly listed private equity firms like Carlyle are taking heavy hits in confidence. Here’s a round up of how some of the other big firm’s are doing under the current circumstances:

The Blackstone Group L.P. (NYSE:BX) saw its net economic income take a tumble when it reported its first quarter on the 19th of April last. The firm reported income of $432.1 million compared to $571 million a year earlier. The company did see expansion in the quarter however and garnered higher total management fees. That is something few other firms in the industry can boast. The company was in control of $190 billion in assets at the end of the quarter with $156 billion of those fee paying assets. The amount of fee paying assets rose by around 26% from the year previous.

BlackRock Inc. (NYSE:BLK)  announced its earnings for the first quarter on the 18th of April. The company reported earnings that were slightly up from the year before. Q1 2012 gave the company $572 million while the same period in 2011 only brought in $568 million. The numbers were better than analysts had expected and assets under management increased at the world’s largest manager to $3.684 trillion. The firm saw an increase in the amount of money it took in from fees on ETF trading and other passive investments which helped bolster income. Additional assets put in by clients hasn’t seemed to have had a proportional effect on the firm’s prospects however a trend seen worryingly repeatedly in the industry.

Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE:APO) managed their way to a stellar quarter in the firs three months of the year. The firm showed earnings of $462 million in the first quarter on revenue of around $776.7 million. In the same period last year the company earned around $376.6 million. The firm beat the analysts with its earnings and surprised many in the industry who thought the firm would perform as its peers had. Leon Black’s firm is still investing freely. The company put around $1 billion into more private equity investments in the first quarter and had over $7 billion left to put into the same.

Apollo’s results prove that though the market for private equity is tight and difficult at the moment there are strategies that can beat it. Carlyle’s results should not be mitigated by excuse. The firm is failing to achieve for its investors what other firms are able to achieve with the same money.

Leave a Comment