By Greg Roumeliotis
(Reuters) - Alternative asset managers Carlyle Group LP (O:CG) and Apollo Global Management LLC (N:APO) followed peers on Wednesday in reporting that the third quarter's stock market plunge weighed on their earnings, even as they scored some key wins.
Like peers Blackstone Group LP (N:BX) and KKR & Co LP (N:KKR), Apollo and Carlyle suffered because economic net income ( ENI (MI:ENI)), the industry's headline earnings metric, takes into account the mark-to-market value of their portfolios, even though lower valuations do not necessarily result in lower cash earnings.
These firms also saw the value of some of their energy-focused funds diminished by the decline in the price of crude oil, which has been particularly punishing for many oil and gas explorations and production companies.
Still, both Carlyle and Apollo surprised investors positively. Carlyle generated more cash than expected by selling some of its assets, while Apollo beat ENI forecasts substantially after it marked up the value of its insurance holding company Athene Holding Ltd by 20 percent.
Carlyle said pre-tax ENI was a loss of $128 million (84 million pounds) in the third quarter, compared with a profit of $181 million a year earlier. This translated to a post-tax ENI loss per adjusted unit of 43 cents versus the 36-cent average loss forecast of analysts in a Thomson Reuters poll.
Apollo's ENI was $104 million, compared with $32 million a year earlier. This was equivalent to ENI per share of 26 cents, versus the analysts' average estimate for a loss of 11 cents. The big jump in ENI was mostly down to an accounting adjustment of Apollo's valuation of Athena, and also due to the weak ENI that Apollo reported in third quarter of 2014.
Carlyle's corporate private equity funds depreciated 3 percent in the third quarter, while the value of Apollo's private equity funds was down 3.7 percent.
Thanks to strong asset sales, Carlyle reported $244 million in distributable earnings in the quarter on a pre-tax basis, up from $157 million a year earlier. Apollo generated less cash from asset sales, and so its distributable earnings after taxes and related payables were $142.5 million versus $342.8 million a year earlier.
Carlyle's assets under management were $187.7 billion at the end of September, down from $192.8 billion as of the end of June. Total assets under management at Apollo were $161.8 billion as of the end of September, slightly down $162.5 billion at the end of June.
Carlyle declared a third-quarter dividend of 56 cents per share, while Apollo declared a dividend of 35 cents per share.