Carlyle's Profit Falls in First-Quarter In its first earnings report as a public company, the Carlyle Group on Tuesday reported a 26 percent drop in profit. But the investment firm emphasized what it said were brighter days ahead, as it saw growth in its investments and plenty of opportunities for deal-making. Carlyle said its economic net income for the quarter fell to $392 million from the period a year earlier. That figure, preferred by rivals like the Blackstone Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, includes unrealized gains from investments. Carlyle itself prefers to use distributable earnings to report its results, a measure that tracks actual payouts to limited partners. Still, that figure tumbled 37 percent, to $179 million, though the firm generated $3.8 billion in net proceeds to its fund-level investors. Based on generally accepted accounting principles, the firm earned $629.2 million, down 30 percent from the period a year earlier. Carlyle's results reflect what has been a mixed environment for alternative investment firms, which have been hobbled by choppy markets and an uncertain economic environment. That has hampered the deal-making that underpins the private equity industry. Carlyle sought to emphasize positive elements of the first quarter, including by noting that its economic net income had actually risen from the fourth quarter. And the valuations of the firm's funds grew 9 percent. Its total assets under management leaped 48 percent, to $159.2 billion, from the period a year earlier, thanks in part to acquisitions. Its fee-earning assets rose 43 percent, to $117 billion. On a conference call with analysts, Carlyle executives said the firm had staged stock sales for a number of its portfolio companies, including an initial public offering of the vehicle parts maker Allison Transmission and a secondary offering of shares in the Dunkin" Brands Group. "Our investment performance continues to be solid," David M. Rubenstein, a Carlyle co-chief executive, said on the call. We have been and remain optimistic about our firm and the prospects that lay ahead of us. The firm emphasized that it had plenty of opportunity to strike deals. It had $39.9 billion of uninvested capital, or "dry powder," as of March 31. "This is a fantastic time to make investments," William E. Conway Jr., a Carlyle co-chief executive, said on the call. Shares in Carlyle were up 1 percent in premarket trading, to $21.25. That is below the firm's I.P.O. price of $22 a share.