Fortress Investment Group LLC released lower than anticipated earnings for the second quarter this week, while at the same time announcing that it will once again start paying a dividend, after a three year lapse. According Reuters, Fortress reported pretax earnings of $46 million. The hedge fund manager had earned $73 million over the same period of last year.
Pushing down Fortress Investment Group’s earnings were poor performance numbers for its hedge funds, as well as lower than expected returns for the firm’s credit-focused private equity funds.
On the bright side, Fortress announced that its asset under management had increased to $43.8 billion as of 6/30/2011. Additionally, the firm revealed that it had secured five-year employment agreements with its top principals: Michael Novogratz, Peter Briger, Wesley Edens, Robert Kauffman and Randal Nardone. The new compensation structures include a mix of cash, stock, and performance linked equity payments. |
