Blackstone distributable earnings nearly double to US$1.1b

Blackstone Group Inc, the world's largest private equity firm, said on Thursday its second quarter distributable earnings nearly doubled year on year driven by a surge in asset sales across its real estate, private equity, credit and insurance businesses, Reuters reports.

Distributable earnings, which represents the cash used to pay dividends to shareholders, climbed  to US$1.1 billion from US$548 million a year earlier. This translated into a distributable earnings per share of 82 US cents, surpassing the average Wall Street analyst estimate of 78 US cents, data compiled by Refinitiv showed.

Frenetic dealmaking by private equity firms such as Blackstone was a major driver in accelerating global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the second quarter, as companies were emboldened by vaccinations and low interest rates that supported economic recovery.

Blackstone said its capital deployment reached a record US$23.8 billion during the quarter. It also committed to investing an additional US$28.5 billion in deals such as acquiring a majority stake in medical supplier Medline Industries Inc alongside Carlyle Group Inc and Hellman & Friedman.

Buoyant capital markets and rising company valuations allowed Blackstone to cash out a lot of its investments.

Total asset sales reached US$19.6 billion, including the US$2.9 billion divestment of its portfolio of warehouse and logistics assets in Australia.

The buyout firm said its private equity portfolio grew by 13.8 percent in the second quarter, compared with a 8.2 percent rise in the benchmark S&P 500 stock index over the same period.

Opportunistic and core real estate funds grew by 9.4 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively.

Blackstone said its net income under generally accepted accounting principles doubled to US$1.3 billion, driven by a sharp rise in investment income.

Its total assets under management grew to US$684 billion from US$648.8 billion in the prior quarter. Unspent capital fell to US$129.9 billion from US$148.2 billion three months earlier owing to the pace of capital deployments.

Blackstone declared a quarterly dividend of 70 US cents per share.