Carlyle’s quarterly profit beats estimate on fee growth, record AUM

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(Reuters) -Global investment firm Carlyle Group beat estimates for first-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by higher fees as its assets under management climbed to a record.

While markets have been volatile for most of the year because of economic uncertainty and U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff rhetoric, large asset managers such as Carlyle have navigated the environment with relative ease.

Their portfolio of investments can fetch millions in management fees, providing stability even when exit opportunities are scarce, and allowing them to capitalize on disruptions and snap up assets at a bargain.

Carlyle’s distributable earnings, which measures cash that can be returned to shareholders, rose 5.6% to $455.4 million, or $1.14 per share, for the three months ended March 31.

Analysts were expecting 95 cents per share, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.

Fee-related earnings rose 17% to a record $310.6 million. Fund management fees grew 2% while transaction and portfolio advisory fees — which it earns from arranging capital markets deals for its portfolio companies and other clients — jumped nearly threefold.

AUM was $453 billion, up 6% from a year earlier, thanks to growth in its global credit segment and in AlpInvest, its secondary investments unit.

The Washington, D.C.-based company recorded inflows of $14.2 billion. It deployed $11.1 billion and had $84 billion available for investment.

So far this year, Carlyle shares have dropped nearly 21%. Peers Blackstone, KKR and Apollo have fallen 21%, 21.4% and 21.7%, respectively.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)