Blackstone tops profit estimate as its assets hit record

NEW YORK, Oct 18 (Reuters): Blackstone beat Wall Street's expectations on its key quarterly earnings metric on Thursday, as the world's largest alternative investment firm's assets under management (AUM) hit a record $1.1 trillion and the value of its funds rose.

New York-based Blackstone said it saw $41 billion of inflows during the third quarter, while it deployed and committed $54 billion of capital, the highest in over two years, amid a revival in dealmaking activity as the US Federal Reserve cut rates and the economic outlook remained sanguine.

The company's private equity funds appreciated by 6.2% in the quarter and its infrastructure funds by 5.5%, contributing to Blackstone's highest fund appreciation in three years.

Chief Executive Steve Schwarzman hailed the results as "broad-based acceleration across our business."

Blackstone's distributable earnings, which represent cash that can be used to pay dividends, totalled $1.3 billion in the third quarter, up 6% from the previous year. This translated into distributable earnings per share of $1.01, according to LSEG data.