Private equity firm TPG's Q4 earnings drop 26% on lower asset sales

By Chibuike Oguh

NEW YORK (Reuters) - TPG Inc said on Wednesday that its fourth-quarter distributable earnings fell 26% year-on-year as it cashed out fewer investments in its private equity, growth, impact and real estate portfolios.

The Fort Worth, Texas-based firm said that after-tax distributable earnings - which represents the cash used to pay dividends to shareholders - fell to $227 million, down from $307 million a year ago. The result was ahead of the average analyst forecast of $202.6 million, according to Refinitiv data.

TPG is the latest private equity firm to report a decline in fourth-quarter income as a fall in corporate valuations hinders asset sales, following peers Blackstone Inc, Carlyle Group Inc, KKR & Co Inc and Apollo Global Management Inc.

TPG said its net profit from asset sales fell to $95 million in the fourth quarter, down 62% from the $251 million posted a year ago. It generated a net income of $23.6 million under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), down 43% from $41.2 million collected in the previous year.

TPG said its private equity funds appreciated 2.2% in the fourth quarter, its growth funds and impact funds were flat and its real estate funds fell 1.5%. The private equity funds of Blackstone, Carlyle and Apollo appreciated by 3.8%, 1% and 5.4%, respectively, while KKR's private equity funds were flat.

TPG ended the fourth quarter with $135 billion in assets under management. The company said it raised $3.6 billion of new capital, spent $5.7 billion on new acquisitions, generated $139 million of fee-related earnings and retained $43 billion of unspent capital.

(This story has been corrected to fix assets under management to $135 billion, not $113.6 billion, in the last paragraph)

(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York; editing by Jamie Freed)