The Carlyle Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CG) reported third-quarter 2026 after-tax distributable earnings of $1.12 a share on Thursday, ahead of analyst estimates, as profits from selling fund investments offset a 6% drop in its fee-related earnings. Pretax distributable earnings, a measure Carlyle uses to gauge its business, rose 17% from a year earlier to $432.5 million.
Analysts had expected $1 a share, according to LSEG data. The beat came even as fee-related earnings, the recurring income Carlyle earns from managing funds, fell to $293 million from $312 million a year earlier. Under U.S. accounting rules, the Washington-based firm posted a net loss of $7.7 million, or 2 cents a share, against a profit of $0.9 million a year earlier.
"We delivered one of our strongest quarters of Distributable Earnings per share on record," Chief Executive Officer Harvey Schwartz said in the earnings release. Schwartz said Carlyle has returned close to $100 billion to its fund investors since the beginning of 2024.
#Fund Exits Lift Carlyle Profit as Fee Earnings Slip
Realized net performance revenues, Carlyle's share of profits when its funds sell investments, rose to $99.8 million from $19.1 million a year earlier. The company said gains came mainly from its second U.S. equity opportunities fund, its fourth Japan buyout fund and two energy funds.
Carlyle's carry funds returned $8.8 billion to investors in the quarter. Exits included a stake in Japanese X-ray equipment maker Rigaku and the sale of electron microscope maker Tescan Group. Over the past 12 months, realized proceeds rose 23% to $39.6 billion.
Fund management fees fell to $546.9 million from $573.9 million. Carlyle said the drop reflected $17 million less in catch-up fees, one-off payments from investors who join a fund after it first closes, along with exits in some private equity funds. The fee-related earnings margin eased to 47% from 48%.
Results varied across the business. Global Credit fee-related earnings rose 11% to $93.2 million, while Carlyle AlpInvest, which buys stakes in other firms' funds and co-invests alongside them, saw fee-related earnings fall to $68.1 million from $87.5 million.
Carlyle manages money across three segments, Global Private Equity, Global Credit and Carlyle AlpInvest. Total assets under management stood at $479 billion, up 1% from a year earlier but down 1% from the prior quarter.
#Carlyle Points to $28 Billion in Commitments Yet to Pay Fees
New money coming in totaled $10.8 billion in the quarter, led by Global Credit. That included the first close of Carlyle's latest opportunistic credit fund and capital raised in its aviation business. Over the past 12 months, inflows fell 15% to $49.8 billion.
Pending fee-earning assets, money investors have already committed that starts paying management fees once it is activated or invested, stood at $28 billion. That was up 48% from a year earlier and flat with the prior quarter. Carlyle invested $11 billion during the quarter, mostly in credit and private equity.
"With near-record levels of Pending Fee-earning AUM and the early stages of a powerful fundraising super-cycle, we are exceptionally well positioned to accelerate growth in the years ahead," Schwartz said in the release.
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#Carlyle Holds Dividend at $0.35 as Accrued Fund Profits Shrink
The board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.35 a share, payable Nov. 23 to holders of record on Nov. 16. Carlyle repurchased or withheld 4.5 million shares during the quarter, while shares repurchased and retired cost $210 million. It had $1.4 billion left under its $2 billion buyback authorization.
The accounting loss reflected the reversal of unrealized performance fees in Carlyle's seventh U.S. buyout fund, partly because of lower prices for certain publicly traded holdings, and in its AlpInvest secondaries strategy. Net accrued performance revenues, profits booked but not yet collected, fell 12% from the prior quarter to $2.1 billion.
The share of eligible fund value currently earning performance fees fell to 67% from 79% a year earlier. Carlyle also said a cumulative unrealized loss of about $222 million on an investment in a consolidated infrastructure fund will be realized when the investment is sold, which it currently expects in the fourth quarter.
Schwartz said Carlyle is positioned to accelerate growth in the years ahead, though slower fundraising over the past year, lower fee-related earnings and weaker valuations in parts of its buyout portfolio remain key risks to that outlook.