(April 14): BlackRock Inc took in a net US$130 billion ($165.31 billion) of client cash in the first quarter, with investor money continuing to pour in despite volatility in the public and private markets and protracted uncertainty over the war in Iran.
Clients added US$72 billion to equity funds and US$34 billion to fixed-income on a net basis, BlackRock said on Tuesday in a statement.
Net flows to long-term investment funds came in at US$136 billion, missing the US$152 billion average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) pulled in US$132 billion, accounting for almost all of the inflows.
Investors pulled roughly US$25 billion out of non-ETF index fund products.
Total assets under management decreased to US$13.9 trillion, and investors pulled US$6 billion from money-market and cash-management accounts.
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BlackRock’s adjusted earnings per share in the quarter rose 11% from a year ago to US$12.53. That beat the average analyst estimate of US$11.48. Revenue rose 27% to US$6.7 billion from the year-ago quarter.
“BlackRock delivered one of the strongest starts to a year in our history,” chief executive officer Larry Fink said in the statement. “Our results and growing pipeline of business show that when clients are making big decisions about their portfolios, they are choosing BlackRock.”
Long a dominant player in stocks, bonds and public markets, BlackRock is in the midst of transforming itself into one of the largest firms in private credit and infrastructure markets globally — including by buying credit firm HPS Investment Partners for US$12 billion last year.
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As the private credit industry began facing a reckoning in recent months, HPS’ flagship retail fund was hit with a surge in redemption requests. The asset manager capped investors’ ability to withdraw cash from the HPS Corporate Lending Fund to about half of the US$1.2 billion they sought to take, arguing it was necessary to guard against a “structural mismatch between investor capital and the expected duration of the private credit loans” in the fund.
Overall, BlackRock took in US$14.6 billion in liquid alternative and private assets in the quarter compared with US$15.6 billion in the prior quarter. Private markets accounted for US$9 billion of the alternatives flows.
BlackRock shares rose in pre-market trading on Tuesday.
Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee
