Business Context and Reporting Period
Company: The Carlyle Group L.P.
Filing Type: Form 8-K (Current Report)
Date of Report: January 22, 2019
Subject: Regulation FD Disclosure regarding a change in the primary non-GAAP financial metrics used by management.
Key Financial Metrics
This filing does not report specific revenue, profit, cash flow, margin, debt, or liquidity figures. The document serves as a notice of a change in financial reporting methodology rather than a disclosure of new financial results.
Material Changes Versus Prior Period
- Primary Metric Shift: The Partnership has determined that Distributable Earnings (DE), including its component Fee Related Earnings (FRE), is now the primary financial information used by chief operating decision makers for operational, compensation, and resource deployment decisions.
- Discontinued Metrics: The Partnership will no longer report Economic Income (EI) or Economic Net Income (ENI) per unit.
- Historical Data Update: Historical financial information for prior periods has been updated to reflect this change and is available on the company's investor relations website.
- Effective Date: The updated presentation will be used for financial results beginning with the quarter and year ended December 31, 2018.
Guidance, Outlook, and Management Commentary
Management commentary is limited to the rationale for the metric change, stating that DE and FRE better reflect the decisions made across the company's four reportable segments. The filing explicitly states that the elimination of EI and ENI per unit does not alter the historical definition of DE. No specific forward-looking guidance, risk factors, or contingencies are detailed in this specific 8-K text.
Investor Verification Checklist
- Verify the updated historical financial data on the investor relations website (ir.carlyle.com) to ensure accurate trend analysis using the new DE metric.
- Review the upcoming quarterly and annual reports (starting Q4 2018) to confirm the cessation of EI and ENI per unit reporting.
- Understand the specific calculation methodology for Distributable Earnings (DE) and Fee Related Earnings (FRE) as defined in the updated disclosures.