NEW YORK CITY—The Blackstone Group's largest segment globally by assets under management has grown even larger. The investment giant said Thursday its real estate AUM increased 9% over the past 12 months to $111.3 billion, a faster year-over-year growth rate than that of the company's portfolio as a whole, with fee-earning AUM growing 14% from the year-ago period. Overall, Blackstone's AUM reached $387.4 billion in the third quarter, a new record for the company.

The gains in real estate asset management fees and the carrying value of Blackstone's funds in the real estate segment played a significant part in the company's Q3 earnings results, which beat analysts' estimates. Blackstone reported economic net income of 69 cents per share for Q3; the Zacks consensus estimate called for ENI of 57 cents per share, and Zacks noted Thursday that the estimate had moved downward in recent days.

Within Blackstone's real estate AUM, core-plus represented an especially fast-growing segment. The company said Thursday that core-plus AUM had reached $18 billion less than four years after the business was launched; its Y-O-Y growth was 36%.