Carlyle posts 2% bump in AUM for quarter, 11% increase for year

Carlyle Group's assets under management totaled $216.5 billion as of Dec. 31, up 2% from three months earlier and up 11% from 12 months earlier, the alternatives investment firm said Wednesday.

Carlyle in its earnings release attributed the increase over the year to a combination of $33.1 billion in fundraising and fund appreciation, partially offset by $24 billion in distributions to fund investors.

Carlyle's private equity AUM was $80.8 billion as of Dec. 31, down 1% from Sept. 30 but up 11% from Dec. 31, 2017. Carlyle's AUM for investment solutions — composed of customized portfolios and its co-investment/secondaries subsidiaries for private equity and real estate — was $45.7 billion, a 3% decline from three months earlier and a 1% decrease from a year earlier. Real assets AUM totaled $45.6 billion, down 1% from the end of the previous quarter but up 6% from the end of the year-ago quarter. Global credit strategies had $44.4 billion in AUM, increasing 19% from Sept. 30 and up 33% from a year earlier.

Carlyle posted a GAAP net loss of $73.2 million in the fourth quarter, vs. net income of $43.2 million in the third quarter and net income of $287.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Total revenue on a GAAP basis was $151.7 million for the fourth quarter, compared to $679.1 million for the third quarter and $1.01 billion for the fourth of 2017.

Carlyle earned fund management fees of $377.4 million, up 14.8% from the prior quarter and up 35.1% from the year-earlier quarter. Incentive fees were $9.7 million, up 42.6% from the third quarter and up 18.3% from the fourth quarter of 2017.

Carlyle experienced an investment loss of $314.9 million in the quarter, vs. investment income of $258.6 million in the previous quarter and $664.4 million in investment income in the year-earlier quarter.