(Bloomberg) -- Blackstone Inc.’s real estate arm weighed on the investment giant’s second-quarter results, as high interest rates crimped property valuations and investors pumped less money into the business.
The world’s largest owner of commercial estate slowed the pace of real estate exits while it grappled with the markets’ shifting fortunes. Profit gains in credit and private equity weren’t enough to offset the drag on fee-related earnings, which fell three per cent to US$1.11 billion, New York-based Blackstone said Thursday in a statement.
Distributable earnings, or profit available to shareholders, increased three per cent from a year earlier to $1.25 billion, or 96 cents a share. That was 2 cents shy of the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
The firm confronted a spike in redemptions in the last two weeks of May after a real estate investment trust of rival Starwood Capital Group dramatically limited investors’ ability to cash out. Blackstone’s $57 billion REIT held off on restricting outflows for two consecutive months even though withdrawal requests hit levels that would have allowed it. In June, BREIT investors requested 50 per cent less in redemptions than they did in May.
The worst is over for the real estate market, with the exception of offices, President Jon Gray said in an interview.
“The clouds in real estate are starting to clear,” he said, noting that declining borrowing costs and a booming market for commercial mortgage-backed securities are fueling deals.
Moderating inflation will also give the Federal Reserve “air cover” to cut interest rates, said Gray, who added that uncertainty about the November U.S. election is unlikely to hamper dealmaking.
Shares of Blackstone climbed three per cent this year through Wednesday, trailing the 17 per cent advance of the S&P 500.
Credit, buyouts
Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative-asset manager, is now a $1.08 trillion financial superstore. It’s a buyout giant, a lender and a heavyweight investor across hedge fund strategies.
The firm’s private equity arm took in new inflows from its first fund for wealthy individuals during the second quarter, and grew fee-related earnings one per cent. Distributable earnings climbed 16 per cent.
Blackstone’s credit financiers delivered the biggest gains. At the credit arm, fee earnings rose 29 per cent and distributable earnings surged 51 per cent as it took in higher flows and cashed out of more bets.
It’s a reminder that big firms can count on credit arms for ballast even as higher rates snarl key businesses. The firm has set its sights on more than doubling its credit assets to $1 trillion in a decade.
Blackstone plowed $33.7 billion into a variety of new investments during the second quarter, a 73 per cent increase from a year earlier. It also committed an additional $19.1 billion to deals.
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