Equity and Equity-Based Compensation

Preferred Unit Issuance

On September 13, 2017, the Partnership issued 16,000,000 of 5.875% Series A Preferred Units (the “Preferred Units”) for gross proceeds of $400.0 million, or $387.6 million, net of issuance costs and expenses. The Partnership plans to use the net proceeds from the sale of the Preferred Units for general corporate purposes, including to fund investments.

Distributions on the Preferred Units will be payable quarterly on March 15, June 15, September 15, and December 15 of each year, beginning on December 15, 2017, when, as and if declared by the Board of Directors of the general partner of the Partnership, at a rate per annum of 5.875%. Distributions on the Preferred Units are discretionary and non-cumulative.

Subject to certain exceptions, unless distributions have been declared and paid or declared and set apart for payment on the Preferred Units for a quarterly distribution period, during the remainder of that distribution period, the Partnership may not repurchase any common units or any other units that are junior in rank to the Preferred Units and the Partnership may not declare or pay or set apart payment for distributions on any common or junior units for the remainder of that distribution period, other than (i) distributions of tax distribution amounts received from Carlyle Holdings in accordance with the terms of the partnership agreements of the Carlyle Holdings partnerships as in effect on the date the Preferred Units were first issued, (ii) the net unit settlement of equity-based awards granted under The Carlyle Group L.P. 2012 Equity Incentive Plan (the “Equity Incentive Plan”) (or any successor or any similar plan) in order to satisfy associated tax obligations, or (iii) distributions paid in junior units or options, warrants or rights to subscribe for or purchase other units or with proceeds from the substantially concurrent sale of junior units. These restrictions are not applicable during the period from original issue date to, but excluding, December 15, 2017.

The Preferred Units may be redeemed at the Partnership’s option, in whole or in part, at any time on or after September 15, 2022 at a price of $25.00 per Preferred Unit, plus declared and unpaid distributions to, but excluding, the redemption date, without payment of any undeclared distributions. Holders of the Preferred Units have no right to require the redemption of the Preferred Units and there is no maturity date.

If a change of control event or tax redemption event occurs prior to September 15, 2022, the Partnership may, at its option, redeem the Preferred Units, in whole but not in part, upon at least 30 days’ notice, within 60 days of the occurrence of such change in control event or such tax redemption event, as applicable, at a price of $25.25 per Preferred Unit, plus declared and unpaid distributions to, but excluding, the redemption date, without payment of any undeclared distributions. If (i) a change of control event occurs (whether before, on or after September 15, 2022) and (ii) the Partnership does not give notice prior to the 31^st day following the change in control event to redeem all the outstanding Preferred Units, the distribution rate per annum on the Preferred Units will increase by 5.00%, beginning on the 31^st day following such change in control event.

If a rating agency event occurs prior to September 15, 2022, the Partnership may, at its option, redeem the Preferred Units, in whole but not in part, upon at least 30 days’ notice, within 60 days of the occurrence of such rating agency event, as applicable, at a price of $25.50 per Preferred Unit, plus declared and unpaid distributions to, but excluding, the redemption date, without payment of any undeclared distributions.

The Preferred Units are not convertible into common units or any other class or series of interests or any other security. Holders of the Preferred Units will generally have no voting rights and have none of the voting rights given to holders of the Partnership’s common units, except as otherwise provided in the Partnership's limited partnership agreement.

Unit Repurchase Program

In February 2016, the Board of Directors of the general partner of the Partnership authorized the repurchase of up to $200 million of common units and/or Carlyle Holdings units. Under this unit repurchase program, units may be repurchased from time to time in open market transactions, in privately negotiated transactions or otherwise. The Partnership expects that the majority of repurchases under this program will be done via open market transactions. No units will be repurchased from the Partnership's executive officers under this program. The timing and actual number of common units and/or Carlyle Holdings units repurchased will depend on a variety of factors, including legal requirements, price, and economic and market conditions. This unit repurchase program may be suspended or discontinued at any time and does not have a specified expiration date. During the nine months ended September 30, 2017, the Partnership paid an aggregate of $0.2 million to repurchase and retire 14,190 units with all of the repurchases done via open market transactions. There were no unit repurchases for the three months ended September 30, 2017. Since inception of this program, the Partnership has paid an aggregate of $59.1 million to repurchase and retire 3.7 million units.

Quarterly Unit Exchange Program

Beginning in the second quarter of 2017, current and former senior Carlyle professionals are able to exchange their Carlyle Holdings partnership units for common units on a quarterly basis, subject to the terms of the Exchange Agreement. During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017, current and former senior Carlyle professionals exchanged 1,646,980 and 4,634,232, respectively, Carlyle Holdings partnership units for common units, resulting in a reallocation of capital of $9.2 million and $23.2 million, respectively, from non-controlling interests in Carlyle Holdings to partners' capital and accumulated other comprehensive loss. None of Carlyle's named executive officers participated in the quarterly unit exchange.

Equity-Based Compensation

In May 2012, Carlyle Group Management L.L.C., the general partner of the Partnership, adopted the Equity Incentive Plan. The Equity Incentive Plan is a source of equity-based awards permitting the Partnership to grant to Carlyle employees, directors of the Partnership’s general partner and consultants non-qualified options, unit appreciation rights, common units, restricted common units, deferred restricted common units, phantom restricted common units and other awards based on the Partnership’s common units and Carlyle Holdings partnership units. The total number of the Partnership’s common units and Carlyle Holdings partnership units which were initially available for grant under the Equity Incentive Plan was 30,450,000. The Equity Incentive Plan contains a provision which automatically increases the number of the Partnership’s common units and Carlyle Holdings partnership units available for grant based on a pre-determined formula; this increase occurs annually on January 1. As of January 1, 2017, pursuant to the formula, the total number of the Partnership’s common units and Carlyle Holdings partnership units available for grant under the Equity Incentive Plan was 32,645,874.

Unvested Partnership Common Units

On August 1, 2013, the Partnership acquired the remaining 40% equity interest in AlpInvest. As part of the transaction, the Partnership issued 914,087 common units to AlpInvest sellers who are employees of the Partnership that are subject to vesting conditions. These common units were unvested at grant and vest over a period of up to five years. The unvested common units are accounted for as equity-based compensation in accordance with ASC Topic 718, Compensation – Stock Compensation (“ASC 718”). The grant-date fair value of the unvested common units is charged to equity-based compensation on a straight-line basis over the required service period. For three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 and 2016, the expense associated with these awards was not material.

As of September 30, 2017, the total unrecognized equity-based compensation expense related to unvested common units was not material and is expected to be recognized within the year.

Unvested Carlyle Holdings Partnership Units

Unvested Carlyle Holdings partnership units are held by senior Carlyle professionals and other individuals engaged in Carlyle’s business and generally vest ratably over a six-year period. The unvested Carlyle Holdings partnership units are accounted for as equity-based compensation in accordance with ASC 718. The grant-date fair value of the unvested Carlyle Holdings partnership units are charged to equity-based compensation expense on a straight-line basis over the required service period. The Partnership recorded equity-based compensation expense associated with these awards of $42.7 million and $40.8 million for the three months ended September 30, 2017 and 2016, respectively, and $121.7 million and $147.6 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 and 2016, respectively. No tax benefits have been recorded related to the unvested Carlyle Holdings partnership units, as the vesting of these units does not result in a tax deduction to the corporate taxpayers.

In connection with the Partnership’s investment in NGP Management in December 2012, the Partnership issued 996,572 Carlyle Holdings partnership units to ECM Capital, L.P. which vest ratably over a period of five years. The Partnership also issued 597,944 Carlyle Holdings partnership units to ECM Capital, L.P. that were issued at closing but vest upon the achievement of performance conditions. As disclosed in Note 5, the performance condition was removed as part of the March 2017 agreement with NGP. The fair value of these units will be recognized as a reduction to the Partnership’s investment income in NGP Management over the relevant service period, based on the fair value of the units on each reporting date and adjusted for the actual fair value of the units at each vesting date. For the periods prior to 2017 for Carlyle Holdings partnership units that vest based on the achievement of performance conditions, the Partnership used the minimum number of partnership units within the range of potential values for measurement and recognition purposes.

As of September 30, 2017, the total unrecognized equity-based compensation expense related to unvested Carlyle Holdings partnership units is $100.8 million, which is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average term of 0.6 years.

Deferred Restricted Common Units

The deferred restricted common units are unvested when granted and vest ratably over a service period, which ranges up to six years. The grant-date fair value of the deferred restricted common units granted to Carlyle’s employees is charged to equity-based compensation expense on a straight-line basis over the required service period. Additionally, the calculation of the expense assumes a per unit discount that generally ranges up to 40%, as these unvested awards do not participate in any Partnership distributions. The Partnership recorded compensation expense of $38.1 million and $40.6 million for the three months ended September 30, 2017 and 2016, respectively, with $4.6 million and $4.4 million of corresponding deferred tax benefits, respectively. The Partnership recorded compensation expense of $119.9 million and $116.8 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 and 2016, respectively with $14.0 million and $13.5 million of corresponding deferred tax benefits, respectively. As of September 30, 2017, the total unrecognized equity-based compensation expense related to unvested deferred restricted common units is $190.7 million, which is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average term of 2.0 years.

Equity-based awards issued to non-employees are recognized as general, administrative and other expenses. The expense associated with the deferred restricted common units granted to NGP personnel by the Partnership are recognized as a reduction of the Partnership’s investment income in NGP Management. The grant-date fair value of deferred restricted common units granted to Carlyle’s non-employee directors is charged to expense on a straight-line basis over the vesting period. The cost of services received in exchange for an equity-based award issued to consultants is measured at each vesting date. Equity-based awards that require the satisfaction of future service criteria are recognized over the relevant service period based on the fair value of the award on each reporting date and adjusted for the actual fair value of the award at each vesting date. The expense for equity-based awards issued to non-employees was not significant for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 and 2016.

A summary of the status of the Partnership’s non-vested equity-based awards as of September 30, 2017 and a summary of changes for the nine months ended September 30, 2017, are presented below:



	Carlyle Holdings			The Carlyle Group L.P.
				Equity Settled Awards						Cash Settled Awards
Unvested Units	Partnership Units	Weighted- Average Grant Date Fair Value		Deferred Restricted Common Units	Weighted- Average Grant Date Fair Value		Unvested Common Units	Weighted- Average Grant Date Fair Value		Phantom Units	Weighted- Average Grant Date Fair Value
Balance, December 31, 2016	17,240,000	$	22.22	16,705,920	$	19.21	38,911	$	21.67	2,520	$	34.81
Granted	—	$	—	8,226,461	$	14.14	—	$	—	—	$	—
Vested	8,145,924	$	22.22	8,288,838	$	19.67	31,129	$	21.53	2,520	$	34.81
Forfeited	437,314	$	22.22	453,461	$	20.22	—	$	—	—	$	—
Balance, September 30, 2017	8,656,762	$	22.00	16,190,082	$	16.77	7,782	$	22.22	—	$	—