Blackstone Q1 2025 Earnings Call

Good day, and welcome to the Blackstone First Quarter twenty twenty five Investor Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Weston Tucker, Head of Shareholder Relations. Please go ahead. Thank you, Katie, and good morning, and welcome to Blackstone's first quarter conference call. Joining today are Steve Schwarzman, Chairman and CEO John Gray, President and Chief Operating Officer and Michael Che, vice chairman and chief financial officer. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release and slide presentation, which are available on our website. We expect to file our 10 q report in a few weeks. I'd like to remind you that today's call may include forward looking statements, which are uncertain and may differ from actual results materially. We do not undertake any duty to update these statements. For a discussion of some of the factors that could affect results, please see the risk factors section of our 10 k. We'll also refer to non GAAP measures, and you'll find reconciliations in the press release on the shareholders page of our website. Also note that nothing on this call constitutes an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase an interest in any Blackstone fund. This audio cast is copyrighted material of Blackstone and may not be duplicated without consent. Quickly on results, we reported GAAP net income for the quarter of January. Distributable earnings were $1,400,000,000 or a dollar 9 per common share, and we declared a dividend of 93¢ per common share, which will be paid to holders of record as of April 28. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Steve. Good morning, and thank you for joining our call, and thank you, Weston. Blackstone reported strong first quarter results with distributable earnings up 11% year over year to 1,400,000,000.0 as Weston mentioned. Fee related earnings grew 9% and represented one of the best quarters in our history. We raised $62,000,000,000 of inflows in q one, the highest level in three years, and approximately $200,000,000,000 over the last twelve months, reflecting broad based momentum across the institutional, insurance, and private wealth channels. This fundraising success lifted assets under management 10% year over year to a new record of nearly $1,200,000,000,000 And I'd say that 62,000,000,000 in a quarter is worth noting. The firm delivered these results against a turbulent market backdrop, which, of course, has further intensified since quarter end. Uncertainty around tariffs and their potential impact on economic growth and inflation has dramatically impacted investor settlement. It's early it's too early, to assess the full implications of tariffs, which depend on the outcome of unprecedented multilateral negotiations with perhaps over a 100 countries around the world. The complexity of the situation means that patience and staying power are key. Importantly, the economy entered this period in a fundamentally strong position. Productivity has increased significantly over the past several years, …