By Greg Roumeliotis
(Reuters) - Blackstone Group LP (N:BX), the world's largest alternative asset manager, on Thursday reported lower-than-expected third-quarter earnings, but said it was well positioned to profit from market jitters and put more of its $42.3 billion in undrawn investor capital to work.
As markets rallied in the last few years, buyout firms have been net sellers rather than buyers, since soaring asset values generally made it more attractive to sell than to buy. A stock market plunge in the last week, however, has raised questions about whether these dynamics could shift.
"With one of the largest pools of available dry powder capital and the broadest alternative investment platform, we are well-positioned to capitalize on the dislocation in asset values created by greater market volatility," Blackstone co-founder and CEO Stephen Schwarzman said in a statement.
Real estate remained by far the biggest contributor to Blackstone's earnings, although private equity profit nearly doubled, and credit investments and the hedge funds portfolio posted significant gains.
Blackstone, whose investments include the Weather Channel and SeaWorld Entertainment Inc (N:SEAS), said economic net income (ENI), a metric of profitability that takes into account the mark-to-market valuation of its portfolio, was $758 million for the quarter, up from $640 million a year earlier.
This translated into ENI of 66 cents per share. Analysts in a Thomson Reuters poll had forecast 72 cents on average.
"The miss was driven by a combination of lower than forecast performance fees in the traditional private equity segment, as well as a higher than anticipated tax rate," Jefferies LLC analysts wrote in a research note.
Blackstone shares were down 3.3 percent at $28.10 in morning trading in New York.
Distributable earnings rose 115 percent in the third quarter to $672 million. Assets under management were $284 billion at the end of September, up from $279 billion at the end of June.
Blackstone President Tony James said the firm was planning to start fundraising for its next global private equity and real estate funds by the end of the year.
James said Blackstone would soon wrap up fundraising for its first Asian real estate fund at its $5 billion cap and will have raised another $4 billion for its "core-plus" real estate strategy that focuses on higher quality, safer assets.
James added that Blackstone was taking the unusual step of reopening to investors its fourth European real estate fund, which finished its $7 billion fundraising in March and is currently two-thirds invested. New commitments are expected it to bring the fund's size to about $8.8 billion, James said.
Blackstone's second energy fund is close to securing $3 billion from investors on its way to its $4.5 billion target, Jame said.
Blackstone's private equity funds appreciated 3.7 percent in the quarter, while the value of the real estate funds rose by 6.2 percent. This compares with a 3 percent rise in peer Carlyle Group LP's (O:CG) private equity funds and 4 percent rise in its real estate funds.
(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and David Gregorio)