Gillian Tan, Columnist

Blackstone: More Reliable Than Steph Curry

The firm's narrow second-quarter miss is nothing to worry about.

July 20, 2017 at 5:31 PM UTC

Gillian Tan is a senior reporter covering finance and alternative asset classes including real estate, infrastructure, private equity, private credit, venture capital and sports business. She previously wrote an opinion column for Bloomberg and was a reporter at the Wall Street Journal. She is a qualified chartered accountant.

1500565899_250852904_3 — Photographer: Chris Goodney

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Blackstone Group LP shareholders shouldn't sweat the small stuff. The big picture should provide some assurance.

The New York firm's stock initially fell as much as 2.2 percent following its narrow second-quarter miss on Thursday before paring back losses. In my opinion, that early reaction was overblown: The metric of economic net income that alternative asset managers are held accountable to is unpredictable. While it's a decent indicator, it doesn't necessarily reflect future performance, because it includes valuation changes in the sizable suite of investments that they haven't yet sold. These can change over time; what matters in the end is the valuation at which they're cashed out.