“Also in real estate we launched our first dedicated pool in Asia earlier this year and expect the first close in the second quarter in excess of $1 billion,” he said. “Lastly in real estate we continue to generate strong inflows from co-investment in our large deals. We've raised nearly $2 billion in co-investment in the last two quarters alone.”

Blackstone officials didn't mention Sea World or any plans to sell it off. However, Scwarzman did speak of IPOs, saying, “We completed an IPO of Pinnacle Foods, priced at $20 a share at the top end of the filing range and it has since traded up further. We did not sell down any interest in this offering.” For the future, he added, “We have a few more IPOs on file, and we expect several more in the coming quarters.”

Schwarzman said still more about the performance of real estate. “In the aggregate, we raised $8.5 billion in capital in the first quarter. In real estate, our opportunistic investments rose over 6%, or $2.4 billion, in total appreciation. Real estate accrued performance fees, net of compensation, increased to $1.4 bilion, despite higher realizations which equates to $1.28 per share.”

CFO Laurence Tosi was equally euphoric. “Blackstone's first quarter was a record start to the year with $1.3 billion of revenue—up 29% year-over-year—on record performance fees and investment income of $739 million, up 57% year-over-year,” he said. “The firm's results reflect not just a single strong quarter but also the earnings momentum created by sustained fund performance and growth, Tosi noted. “Total performance fee earning assets reached a record $88.5 billion across 90 distinct funds currently generating cash performance fees. That's up 54% over the last year.”

Overall, Tosi noted, “We executed 40 different transactions that generated $6 billion in realizations across the funds earning performance fees. These realizations are the key driver behind the more than doubling of distributable earnings to $379 million and represents the strongest first quarter in the company's history.”

More generally, Joan Solotar, senior managing director, head of the external relations and strategy group, reported results of “ENI of $0.55 cents per unit, up from $O.44 in the first quarter of last year. Distributable earnings were $379 million, or $0.33 per common unit for the first quarter, more than double last year's.

Added Schwarzman, “We've launched or are launching a number new products in every business line. We've seen very sharp increases in cash realizations recently and in good markets we will continue to harvest the value we've created,” he said. “The state of the end of the first quarter is a very positive one.”