Blackstone Q4 Distributable Earnings Down 42% YoY; Revenue Down 74%

(RTTNews) - Blackstone (BX) reported a fourth-quarter loss per share of $0.02 compared to profit of $0.45 per share, previous year. Net loss attributable to The Blackstone Group L.P. was $10.87 million compared to profit of $304.14 million, last year. Fee related earnings were $433 million or $0.36/unit for the quarter, up 23% year-over-year. Distributable earnings were $722 million or $0.57/unit for the quarter, including $331 million of net realizations. Distributable Earnings declined 42%, while DE per common unit was down 43% from prior year.

Fourth-quarter total revenue was $504.98 million, down 74% from previous year. Net management and advisory fees were down 9% year-on-year to $797.55 million. Total Assets Under Management was $472.2 billion, up 9% year-over-year.

Stephen Schwarzman, CEO, said, "Blackstone again delivered attractive investment performance for our limited partners in 2018, with nearly all of our flagship strategies handily beating their relevant indices despite significant market volatility. Inflows of more than $100 billion last year coupled with positive performance drove assets under management to a record $472 billion. And for our shareholders, we returned $1 billion through distributions and buybacks for the second consecutive quarter, and $3 billion for the full year."

Blackstone has declared a quarterly distribution of $0.58 per common unit to record holders of common units at the close of business on February 11, 2019. The distribution will be paid on February 19, 2019.

Separately, Tallgrass Energy, LP (TGE) and Blackstone (BX) announced that affiliates of Blackstone Infrastructure Partners have entered into a definitive agreement with affiliates of Kelso & Co., The Energy & Minerals Group, and Tallgrass KC, LLC, an entity owned by certain members of TGE's management, to acquire 100% of the membership interests in TGE's general partner, as well as an approximately 44% economic interest in Tallgrass, for total cash consideration of approximately $3.3 billion.