BlackRock smashes expectations as economic rebound swells assets under management

The world’s largest asset manager BlackRock smashed profit expectations, driven by a booming global economy swelling assets under its wing.

The US money manager ended the third quarter with $9.46 trillion in assets under management, up sharply from $7.81 trillion a year ago.

Money managers have received a bump from investors deploying capital in financial markets amid a booming economic rebound from the depths of the Covid-19 crisis triggered by the rollout of vaccination programmes across developed nations.

Capital markets have soared as economic activity and investor sentiment has marched toward pre-pandemic health.

Income at the American behemoth climbed 16 per cent to over $5bn for the third quarter, mainly generated by its technology arm posted strong revenue expansion.

BlackRock is uniquely placed to benefit from strong economic growth and improving consumer sentiment due to its wide coverage of different aspects of financial markets. It holds dominant positions in the equity, fixed income and multi-asset and alternative asset markets.

Profit per share, a key measure of a company’s health, hit £10.95, higher than the $9.35 forecast by analysts.

Larry Fink, BlackRock chief executive, said: “Organic growth was broad-based, spanning our active platform as well as in each of our ETF (exchange traded fund) product categories,” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said.

BlackRock long-term net flows for the quarter stood at $98 billion, same as last year, but organic inflows exceeded the fund manager’s 5% target for a sixth consecutive quarter.