The world’s biggest money manager beat market expectations yesterday as rising equities lifted Blackrock’s assets under management to a record high.
Higher levels of activity in the stock market helped to boost the group’s profits by a fifth. Adjusted net quarterly income reached $1.57 billion, up from $1.31 billion in the quarter to December 31, 2019.
Larry Fink, 68, its chairman and chief executive, said that Blackrock was “well-positioned” at the start of the year, having finished 2020 managing about $8.68 trillion in assets. A year earlier, it was managing $7.43 trillion.
Blackrock, established three decades ago, is one of the most influential companies in global finance. With 16,000 staff, its clients include some of the world’s biggest corporations and wealthiest individuals. Its results provide an insight into what corporate and retail investors are doing with their money. The firm makes money from the fees it charges for handling clients’ money; when asset prices are higher and markets more volatile, it generates more.
Wall Street rallied in the final months of last year as the prospect of considerable stimulus and reassurance from central banks bolstered investors’ confidence in economic recovery. The Dow Jones industrial average has risen more than 12 per cent since October 1, when the fourth quarter started.
Shares in Blackrock, which closed at a record high on Wednesday, slipped by 4 per cent after its earnings release.
Source: The Times
