UPDATE 2-Fortress shares fall on 3rd-qtr loss

* Loss for class A shareholders 43 cts vs. 66 cts year-ago

* Revenue of $143.7 mln vs. $185.2 mln on lower fees

* Shares down 5 pct in morning trading (Adds share decline, CEO comment)

NEW YORK, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Fortress Investment Group LLC (FIG.N: Quote, Profile, Research), a listed hedge fund and private equity giant, posted a third quarter loss on Friday as management fees tracked a decline in total assets.

Fortress shares were down 5 percent or 23 cents at $4.34 in morning trading.

Fortress said its net loss attributable to Class A shareholders was $59 million, or 43 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with a loss of $57 million, or 66 cents, in the year-earlier period.

Revenue came in at $143.7 million, down from $185.2 million a year earlier, mainly on lower management fees. Analysts had expected revenue of $123 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, and pretax distributed earnings of 9 cents a share. Pretax distributed earnings were 11 cents a share, the company said.

Like other hedge fund firms, Fortress was hit hard last fall as waves of cash-strapped investors tried to withdraw their money. At the end of the quarter Fortress managed $32 billion in assets, down from $34.3 billion a year earlier as it tried to block redemptions.

On a conference call with analysts, Fortress Chief Executive Daniel Mudd was upbeat, noting its assets under management were 21 percent higher than their low of $26.5 billion at the end of March. "After all the gloom and doom, I think we may be going into a golden age of alternatives," he said.