(Bloomberg) - BlackRock Inc. (BLK) pulled in a record $221 billion of total client cash last quarter, pushing the world’s largest money manager to an all-time high of $11.5 trillion of assets as it seeks to become a one-stop shop for stocks, bonds and, increasingly, private assets.
Investors added $97 billion to exchange-traded funds and $63 billion to fixed-income overall in the third quarter, New York-based BlackRock said Friday in a statement. 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.
BlackRock pulled in $5.5 billion of total net flows for alternatives, compared with outflows of $4.2 billion a year ago. It reported $170 billion of illiquid alternative assets.
That’s set to surge. After the third quarter ended, the firm completed its $12.5 billion acquisition of Global Infrastructure Partners, in a deal adding $116 billion of private market assets.
BlackRock’s long-term investment funds took in $160 billion net flows in the period, a total that topped the $100 billion average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
The company also had $61 billion in net flows to cash-management and money-market funds in the period. Operating income rose 26% from a year ago to $2.1 billion.
The firm added $2.4 trillion to its total assets over the past 12 months.
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% 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 private-markets 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 5% from a year ago to $11.46 per share, beating analysts’ expectations of $10.40 a share. Revenue rose 15% to $5.2 billion from a year ago, which the firm said was driven by higher performance fees, organic base fee growth and the positive impact of markets.
Shares of BlackRock have risen about 18% this year as of market close Thursday, trailing the 21% advance of the S&P 500 Index.
By Silla Brush
