By Miriam Gottfried

Blackstone President Jonathan Gray said market volatility following the Trump administration's "Liberation Day" tariffs could hurt private equity's ability to sell off companies and return money to investors.

Blackstone has limited exposure to companies that would be directly affected by tariffs such as manufacturers or retailers, he said. But the uncertainty over tariffs has put deal activity, which was already slow, on hold.

"For us, it's about the impact on M&A and the IPO market, and I think we have to see how quickly this tariff diplomacy settles," Gray said, in an interview about Blackstone's quarterly results.

Key numbers from Blackstone's first-quarter report:

-- Net income was $614.9 million, or 80 cents a share, down from $847.4 million a year earlier.

-- The value of the firm's investments climbed across all of its major strategies, but by less than the year before

-- Distributable earnings, or cash that could be returned to shareholders, came in at $1.41 billion, or $1.09 a share, up from $1.27 billion a year earlier.

-- Blackstone raised $61.6 billion, pushing assets under management to nearly $1.2 trillion. A little more than half of that came from credit and insurance.

The firm is hosting a conference call at 9 a.m. ET to discuss the results.

This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 17, 2025 07:05 ET (11:05 GMT)

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