Carlyle Group LP, the private equity group that went public in a $671 million IPO earlier this month, on Tuesday reported a 26 percent drop in profitability in its first-quarter earnings, as it failed to match a strong 2011 first quarter.

Carlyle said economic net income (ENI), a measure of its profitability that takes into account the mark-to-market valuation of its assets, declined to $392 million from $533 million in the first quarter of 2011.

Distributable earnings, which includes realized rather than unrealized investment gains and accounts for cash available to pay dividends, was down 37 percent at $179 million, reflecting fewer assets sales compared to the first quarter of last year.

Assets under management increased 48 percent year on year to $159.2 billion, with fee-paying assets under management at $117 billion. Carlyle said it generated realized proceeds of $3.8 billion for its fund investors in the first quarter.

Met with lukewarm investor interest, Carlyle had to discount its IPO to $22 per share on May 2, below the expected price range of $23 to $25 per unit. Its shares ended trading on Monday at $21, giving it a market value of about $6.4 billion.

This article is copyrighted by Reuters