Blackstone's fourth-quarter earnings more than double

Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blackstone Group LP , the world's largest publicly listed alternative asset manager, reported a 130-percent rise in fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, showing particularly strong gains in its real estate business. Blackstone, whose investments include The Weather Channel, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc and SeaWorld Entertainment Inc , said economic net income - a metric of its profitability that takes into account the mark-to-market valuation of its portfolio - was $1.54 billion (934.46 million pounds) in the fourth quarter of 2013, compared with $670 million a year ago. Distributable earnings, which show actual cash that is available to pay dividends, jumped 46 percent in the first quarter to $820.6 million. Total assets under management were $265.8 billion as of the end of December, up 26 percent year-on-year. Fee-earning assets under management rose 18 percent to $198 billion. Blackstone declared a quarterly distribution of 58 cents per common unit. (Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum)