TacticScaleWhat Carlyle Does & How It Makes Money (CG)
Updated October 2026 · reflects Carlyle's latest reported financials
Global private equity and alternative investment firm. Carlyle earns management fees on the capital it manages for investors, plus a share of investment profits (carried interest) when its funds' deals perform well.
How Carlyle makes money
Carlyle earns management fees on the capital it manages for investors, plus a share of investment profits (carried interest) when its funds' deals perform well.
What Carlyle does
The Carlyle Group is a global alternative investment firm that makes direct investments and fund-of-funds investments. Its direct deals include management-led and leveraged buyouts, privatizations, divestitures, minority stakes, growth and venture financing, PIPEs, recapitalizations, and turnarounds. On the credit side it provides senior debt, mezzanine and leveraged finance, structured credit, and distressed investing. The firm is organized into four segments: Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Market Strategies, and Solutions. It invests across many sectors, including industrials, consumer and retail, aerospace and defense, government services, healthcare and life sciences, technology and software, financial services, energy and power, infrastructure, real estate, telecommunications, media, transportation, and logistics.
Products & services
- Corporate Private Equity (buyouts & growth capital)
- Global Market Strategies (credit, mezzanine, distressed debt)
- Real Assets (infrastructure, energy, real estate)
- Solutions (fund of funds)
- Venture and growth capital financing
What is Carlyle worth?
On an owner-earnings DCF, Carlyle's most-likely value is about $57 versus a recent price near $38 (48% below fair value). But TacticScale only calls a stock undervalued when the price sits below its conservative no-growth floor (~$26) with a margin of safety — so the honest verdict here is “Fairly priced — no edge.” Fair value earns its keep only at the extremes, not in the wide middle.
Price sits in the normal range — fair value isn't actionable here; it earns its keep only when price drops below the no-growth floor, or runs to roughly double the optimistic case.
⚠ High leverage — net debt is 11.4× annual cash flow. Net debt is subtracted from this fair value, but refinancing at higher rates, principal timing, and share dilution aren’t modeled — the equity can be worth far less if cash flow weakens.
Analysis, not advice. Fair value is a margin-of-safety estimate from a deterministic owner-earnings DCF, not a price target or recommendation. See the full breakdown →
Related companies
Apollo Global Management (APO) · KKR (KKR) · Blackstone (BX) · Affiliated Managers (AMG) · Hamilton Lane (HLNE)