Despite his recently failed deals and huge new losses, Wall Street is starting to throw even more billions at Steve Schwarzman and his Blackstone Group, sending its shares higher.
Blackstone shot up more than 6 percent yesterday after it reported a first-quarter loss of $251 million as fees tumbled in each of its businesses, including its once-dependable standby, real estate, where revenue plunged 94 percent.
Dragging down profit was the expense of vesting executive non-cash compensation, which totaled $219.6 million in the quarter, compared with $241.2 million in the year-earlier quarter.
Investors and funds are sending more money to Blackstone, where managed assets jumped 37 percent to $113.5 billion from $83.1 billion a year earlier. Hedge-fund assets soared by 80 percent to $56.6 billion. Real-estate assets grew 35 percent to $26.3 billion, but private equity dropped 5 percent to $30.7 billion.
Shares ended 5.3 percent higher at $20.54, up $1.04, but are still down 37 percent since the firm’s IPO in June, shrinking the value of Schwarzman’s stake to $4.49 billion.