Blackstone Q1 Profit Down; Plans To Pay Special Dividend Of $0.30/unit In 2018

(RTTNews) - Blackstone Group L.P. (BX) reported that its net income attributable to the company for the first quarter 2018 declined to $367.87 million from the prior year's $451.91 million, with net income per unit decreasing to $0.53 from $0.68 last year.

Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, "Amid declining global markets and a sharp increase in volatility, Blackstone continued to protect and grow our investors' capital in the first quarter, delivering strong outperformance across strategies. Investors in the institutional, retail and insurer channels are allocating more capital to our firm, resulting in more than $18 billion of inflows during the quarter and driving our total assets under management to a new record of $450 billion, up 22% year over year."

Schwarzman said, "... Today I am pleased to announce we have increased our unit repurchase authorization to $1 billion. We also intend to make a special distribution of $0.30 per unit in 2018 representing a portion of the proceeds received in connection with the conclusion of our direct lending sub-advisory relationship."

Economic net income for the quarter was $791.71 million and $0.65 per unit, compared to $967.91 million and $0.81 per unit last year.

Total revenues for the quarter declined to $1.77 billion from $1.91 billion in prior year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.63 per share and revenues of $1.71 billion for the first-quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Total Assets Under Management or "AUM" grew to a record $449.6 billion, up 22% year-over-year, through a combination of continued fundraising and fund appreciation.

The company increased its unit repurchase authorization to $1 billion and announced $0.30 per unit special distribution to be paid out over the next three quarters. Blackstone declared a first quarter distribution of $0.35 per common unit payable on May 7,2018.

The company has declared a quarterly distribution of $0.35 per common unit to record holders of common units at the close of business on April 30, 2018. This distribution will be paid on May 7, 2018.