(Reuters) - Blackstone Group LP , the largest publicly listed alternative asset manager, said second-quarter earnings dropped as challenging public markets weighed on the value of its assets and reduced its lucrative performance fees.
Blackstone, whose investments include The Weather Channel, Pinnacle Foods and SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, reported on Thursday that economic net income (ENI), a metric of its profitability that takes into account the market valuation of its portfolio, fell 74 percent from a year earlier to $212 million.
Distributable earnings, which show cash available to pay dividends, slipped 1 percent to $188 million. Fee-related earnings, usually the most reliable source of profits, dropped 7 percent to $146 million.
Assets under management were $190 billion as of the end of June, flat compared to the previous quarter. Fee-earning assets under management were also little changed at $158 billion, albeit a record.
Blackstone declared a quarterly distribution of 10 cents per common unit.
(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; editing by John Wallace)
