By Isla Binnie and Niket Nishant (Reuters) -Carlyle Group reported a better-than-expected profit in the second quarter on Wednesday, helped by a pickup in fees as it grew its assets under management. Its CEO Harvey Schwartz has been working on a turnaround after a few difficult years linked to an industry-wide downturn and an internal […]
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Carlyle’s second-quarter profit tops estimate on fee growth as AUM climbs
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By Isla Binnie and Niket Nishant
(Reuters) -Carlyle Group reported a better-than-expected profit in the second quarter on Wednesday, helped by a pickup in fees as it grew its assets under management.
Its CEO Harvey Schwartz has been working on a turnaround after a few difficult years linked to an industry-wide downturn and an internal succession struggle.
Schwartz identified wealth, global credit and insurance and capital markets among priorities when he took over in 2023.
Last week, Carlyle named three of its longtime insiders as co-presidents, a new role and a step some analysts said could help reinforce investors’ confidence in the company.
Distributable earnings, or profit that can be returned to shareholders, jumped 25.6% to $431 million, or 91 cents per share. That compares with 89 cents that analysts had expected, according to estimates compiled by LSEG.
Fee-related earnings grew 18.4% to $323.3 million in the quarter. Fund management fees rose 16% and transaction and portfolio advisory fees, which Carlyle earns from arranging capital market deals for its portfolio companies and other clients, jumped 66%.
Assets under management at the Washington, D.C.-based company rose 7% to $465 billion, thanks to growth in Carlyle AlpInvest, the unit for second-hand private equity funds that Schwartz has also made a priority.
The secondary market has given pension funds and other private equity investors a way to sell stakes in companies at a time when elevated interest rates, sweeping U.S. tariffs and geopolitical uncertainty have hampered dealmaking.
Still, market activity was accelerating, Schwartz said.
The company generated $13.4 billion of fresh capital. It deployed $14.6 billion and had $89 billion available for investment at the end of the quarter.
So far this year, Carlyle’s shares have jumped nearly 19% compared with an 8.3% growth in the Nasdaq composite index.
Its shares were up nearly 2% in thin trading before the open.
(Reporting by Isla Binnie in New York and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)