The listed private equity quartet held roughly $416bn in dry powder at the end of Q2 [Private Equity Insights]

The four largest publicly traded alternative asset managers – Apollo Global Management Inc., Blackstone, Carlyle, and KKR – held roughly $416bn in dry powder at the end of the second quarter, said a study.

The quartet aims to take advantage of the same market turbulence that curbed investment performance and sent their stocks tumbling in the first half of 2022, according to a report by S&P Global.

Each of the four turned in a worse total return performance than the S&P 500 for the six months ended June 30. The index shed 20% of its value during that time, heading into bear market territory.

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Executives at the firms focused on the silver lining of the market’s storm clouds in recent earnings calls: falling valuations for potential acquisition targets.

The dry powder allow them to “deploy large-scale capital at lower prices,” as Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman put it, said S&P.

The big four’s first-half performance was in line with a broader trend of falling stock prices across the financial sector, analyst Brian McKenna of JMP Securities said.

Apollo, Blackstone, and KKR all reported negative net income figures for the quarter while writing down the value of their private equity portfolios. Carlyle’s second-quarter net income figure was in positive territory but down 73% year over year, and while its private equity portfolio did not lose value in the quarter

Source: Opalesque