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BlackRock attracted a record amount of new money in each of the final two quarters of 2024, capping a year in which the world’s largest asset manager recorded $641bn in net inflows.
The company reported assets under management of $11.55tn at the end of December — an all-time high but short of analysts’ expectations of $11.66tn.
The inflows, half of which went into exchanged-traded funds, helped push revenues during the final three months of the year to $5.68bn, a 23 per cent increase on the same period in 2023 and surpassing analysts’ expectations. Full-year revenues rose 14 per cent in 2024, passing $20bn for the first time.
BlackRock benefited from rising markets, which helped lift the value of its assets under management. US stocks soared last year as investors bet that Donald Trump’s return to the White House this month would lead to corporate tax cuts, deregulation and a wave of dealmaking. The total return on the S&P 500 was 24.5 per cent in 2024.
The company also managed to increase base fees, while its $12.5bn purchase of private capital group Global Infrastructure Partners brought further assets to the group.
Net income for the quarter increased 21 per cent to $1.67bn compared with the same period in 2023.
BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink hailed a “milestone year for strategic acquisitions”.
The group spent almost $30bn on three acquisitions last year as it rushed to expand its share of the fast-growing and lucrative market for private assets, and to diversify beyond the low-cost exchange traded funds and index products that are its bread and butter.
As well as the GIP deal, which closed in the fourth quarter, BlackRock announced in June the acquisition of UK private markets data group Preqin for £2.55bn and a $12bn deal in December for private credit manager HPS Investment Partners.
The push into private markets could drive “higher fee rates, better revenue growth and higher profit margins over the long-term” if the acquisitions were successfully executed, wrote Kyle Sanders, an analyst at Edward Jones.
“Our record organic growth and financial results do not yet reflect
the full integration or pending acquisitions of the high-growth
businesses of GIP, HPS and Preqin,” said Fink. “And we’ve steadily made organic investments ahead of structural trends that we expect to drive outsized growth in the years ahead.”
Shares were up 3.7 per cent in pre-market trading in New York.
“BlackRock enters 2025 with more growth and upside potential than ever,” said Fink. “This is just the beginning.”
The Financial Times revealed on Tuesday that top BlackRock executive Mark Wiedman — widely discussed as a potential successor to Fink for more than a decade — is leaving the company. His departure disrupts the asset manager’s planning for the eventual retirement of Fink.
