BlackRock hits US$11.5 trillion of assets as private markets grow

BLACKROCK pulled in US$160 billion of client cash to its long-term investment funds last quarter, pushing the world’s largest money manager to a record US$11.5 trillion of assets as it seeks to become a one-stop shop for stocks, bonds and, increasingly, private assets.

Investors added US$97 billion to exchange-traded funds and US$63 billion to fixed-income overall in the third quarter, New York-based BlackRock said on Friday (Oct 11) in a statement, a total that topped the US$100 billion average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. BlackRock has pulled in US$360 billion of total net inflows so far this year, surpassing the full-year net flows of 2022 and 2023.

“We are effectively leveraging our technology, scale, and global footprint to deliver profitable growth,” chief executive officer Larry Fink said in the statement.

After the third quarter ended, the firm completed its US$12.5 billion acquisition of Global Infrastructure Partners on Oct 1, in a deal adding US$116 billion of private market assets.

The company also had US$61 billion in net flows to cash-management and money-market funds in the period. Total net flows were US$221 billion.

BlackRock is positioning itself as a single place for global clients to invest across public and private markets. It benefited this year from the surge in stocks and cash beginning to flow into fixed-income and private funds. The S&P 500 Index rose about 5.5 per cent in the third quarter, and investors are betting the Federal Reserve won’t need to cut rates aggressively in the near-term to avoid a recession.

BlackRock is in the process of closing a £2.55 billion (S$4.4 billion) acquisition of private-markets data firm Preqin.

The firm is also signalling that it wants to catch up in the fast-growing market for private credit, recently shaking up the senior executive team of its global private debt business and establishing a direct-lending group. BlackRock is exploring a purchase of HPS Investment Partners that could value the private credit firm in excess of US$10 billion, Bloomberg reported this week.

BlackRock’s adjusted net income per share rose 5 per cent from a year ago to US$11.46 per share. Revenue rose 15 per cent to US$5.2 billion from a year ago.

Shares of BlackRock have risen about 18 per cent this year as of market close on Thursday, trailing the 21 per cent advance of the S&P 500 Index. BLOOMBERG