Blackstone Inc.

welcome to the blackstone first quarter 2021 investor call my name is joanne and i'm your event manager during the presentation your lines will remain on listen only and if you require assistance at any time please key star and zero on your telephone and a coordinator will be happy to assist you if you would like to ask a question please press star and one I'd like to advise all parties this conference is being recorded, and now I'd like to hand over to Weston Tucker, Head of Investor Relations. Please proceed.

Great. Thanks, Joanne, 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, Chief Financial Officer. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release and slide presentation, which are available and 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 outside of the firm's control and may differ from actual results materially. We do not undertake any duty to update these statements, and for a discussion of some of the risks that could affect results, please see the risk factor 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. So quick recap of our results. We reported GAAP net income for the quarter $3.4 billion. Distributable earnings were $1.2 billion, or $0.96 per common share, and we declared a dividend of $0.82 to be paid to holders of record as of May 3rd. With that, I'll turn the call over to Steve.

Thank you, Weston, and good morning, and thank you for joining our call. Blackstone reported remarkable results for the first quarter. Distributable earnings more than doubled year-over-year to $1.2 billion. Fee-related earnings rose nearly 60% year-over-year and for the last 12 months were up 40% to a record $2.6 billion. Investment performance was extremely strong again in the quarter, as it has been for over 35 years, driving the balance sheet receivable to record levels. At the same time, we grew AUM 21% year over year to an industry record $649 billion. The firm has exceptional forward momentum, and I anticipate significant continued expansion of our earnings power, particularly in FRE, for the foreseeable future. This is the result of the new products we're launching and the acceleration of existing ones, which John will describe in more detail and as he did on television this morning. Blackstone is the clear leader in the alternative sector. We've also established ourselves as one of the leading public companies in any industry. We've grown from $400,000 in startup capital in 1985 to become the 87th largest U.S. public company by market cap today. Our long-term financial performance has been extraordinary. For the past decade, we've grown distributable earnings by 17% per year more than double the median earnings growth of the S&P 500. We rank in the top quartile of this group today on almost any relevant metric, including revenue and earnings growth, aggregate earnings, profit margins, dividend yields, and trading volume. Blackstone is also widely recognized as one of the best franchises. Just last month, Morgan Stanley published their biennial list of the 30 best companies in the United States for long-term stock ownership. And again, Blackstone made the list. We are in good company with firms like Alphabet, Amazon, Costco, Microsoft, Netflix, Nike, and Visa. Like Blackstone, These companies have built very significant brand equity by offering a distinctive customer experience, resulting in wide competitive moats. At Blackstone, we're in a unique position in a sector that has tremendous tailwinds. We are in the early stages of an inexorable shift of capital flows towards alternatives. As global limited partners continue to increase their allocations, in pursuit of better returns. And the opportunity is enormous. There is an estimated $6.5 trillion of private markets AUM today compared to nearly 250 trillion of public equity and debt markets globally. We believe Blackstone is the best positioned firm in the world to benefit from these secular trends as the largest alternative manager with the number one brand. At our investor day, approximately two and a half years ago, we outlined a number of fundraising and financial targets. Since that time, we've grown AUM by nearly 50% and launched over a dozen new strategies, including successful businesses and life science and growth equity. which significantly expanded our presence in the private wealth and insurance channels. And Perpetual Capital AUM has more than doubled, led by growth in our Real Estate Core Plus platform. All of this has driven a new doubling of fee-related earnings over the period. As the firm continues to grow, it also creates opportunities for our people to lead In the past few years, we've promoted or moved approximately 50 of our professionals into key leadership roles around the firm, including to run new businesses or to oversee a sector. As our people advance in their careers, there's a deep bench of talent behind them to step up. This organizational dynamism helps to keep our people motivated, fosters integration, and perpetuates our unique culture. In the event we look externally for someone to help us build a business, our skill and reputation allow us to attract great outside talent as well. Blackstone is an extraordinary place to work, and we are regularly cited as one of the best places to work in our industry, including most recently by Fortune magazine. It also follows that young people want to build their careers here. We've had more than 19,000 unique applicants for 93 starting analyst positions last year. Our people, along with our reputation, are the firm's most important assets. Our clients have come to expect from us the highest level of excellence and integrity. Everyone at the firm strives to produce exceptional results. I couldn't be prouder of what our people have accomplished together and strongly believe the best is yet to come for our employees, our limited partners, and our fellow shareholders. And with that, I'd like to turn things over to John.