Blackstone may already be your landlord. It would like to be your loan officer next. On Thursday, the world’s largest alternative assets manager, best-known for its real estate business, reported first-quarter results.
Profits were as desultory as expected amid depressed public and private market valuations. Overall assets under management grew less than $20bn in the first three months of the year, leaving Blackstone just shy of the mythic $1tn mark. Cash earnings fell 37 per cent year over year. It slashed the quarterly dividend by roughly the same amount.
Investment groups are trying to deploy cash quickly in order to take advantage of bargains. Blackstone brass assured the market that its vast property portfolio had little remaining exposure to empty office towers. Intriguingly, they later described the turmoil in the regional banking industry as a “golden moment”.