Fortress First-Quarter Profit Falls 45% on Hedge Fund Fees

Fortress Investment Group LLC, the first publicly traded private-equity and hedge fund manager in the U.S., said first-quarter profit fell 45 percent on lower management fees and incentive income.

Pretax distributable earnings, which exclude some compensation costs and other items, declined to $57 million, or 11 cents a share, compared with $103 million, or 20 cents, a year earlier, the New York-based company said today in a statement. That beat the 10-cents average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.