Carlyle reports 7% drop in Q4 earnings amid decline in asset sales

By Chibuike Oguh

NEW YORK, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Carlyle Group said on Wednesday its fourth-quarter distributable earnings fell 7% year-on-year, as it sold fewer assets from its private equity portfolio.

Distributable earnings, which represents the cash used to pay dividends to shareholders, dropped to $402.7 million from $433 million a year earlier.

That resulted in after-tax distributable earnings of 86 cents. While this represented a decline, it was higher than the mean Wall Street analyst estimate of 78 cents, according to LSEG data.

Carlyle said its net profit from asset sales fell nearly 44% to $257.7 million, as market volatility, high interest rates and geopolitical tensions weighed on its ability to cash out investments.

Income from fund management fees, however, rose 2.5% to $525.1 million, helped by growth in its total assets under management, which reached a record $426 billion in the fourth quarter.

"It was a record year for Carlyle and we're building that momentum into 2024," Carlyle Chief Executive Harvey Schwartz said during a conference call with journalists.

Just like its peers, Carlyle's corporate private equity funds gained 2% during the quarter, while global credit funds rose 4%. It real estate portfolio lost 2%, while infrastructure and natural resources funds were flat.

Blackstone Inc's corporate private equity funds gained 3.5%, while its opportunistic real estate portfolio depreciated by 3.8%, the firm said last week. On Tuesday, KKR & Co Inc reported that its private equity funds gained 3% while its opportunistic real estate fell 1%.

Carlyle reported a net loss of $692 million under generally accepted principles (GAAP), compared with a net income of $127.2 million a year earlier, owing to a one-time charge of $1.1 billion relating to new changes to its compensation program designed to pay out more profits to employees and executives.

Carlyle spent $7.2 billion on new acquisitions, raised nearly $17 billion of new capital, and retained $76 billion of unspent capital as of the end of December. It declared a quarterly dividend of 35 cents. (Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York; Editing by Michael Perry)