BlackRock Inc.pulled in $160 billion of client cash to its long-term investment funds last quarter, pushing the world’s largest money manager to a record $11.5 trillion of assets as it seeks to become a one-stop shop for stocks, bonds and, increasingly, private assets, according to Bloomberg.
Investors added $97 billion to exchange-traded funds and $63 billion to fixed-income overall in the third quarter, New York-based BlackRock said in a statement, a total that topped the $100 billion average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
BlackRock has pulled in $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 $12.5 billion acquisition of Global Infrastructure Partners on Oct. 1, in a deal adding $116 billion of private market assets. The company also had $61 billion in net flows to cashmanagement and money-market funds in the period.
Total net flows were $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 ($3.3 billion) acquisition of privatemarkets data firm Preqin.
The firm is also signaling 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 $10 billion, Bloomberg reported this week. BlackRock’s adjusted net income per share rose five per cent from a year ago to $11.46 per share.
Revenue rose 15 per cent to $5.2 billion from a year ago. Shares of BlackRock have risen about 18 per cent this year as of market close Thursday, trailing the 21 per cent advance of the S&P 500 Index.
