Blackrock assets swell to $10.5 trillion as inflows fall by more than half

Blackrock’s assets under management swelled to $10.5 (£8.4tn) trillion in the first quarter of this year due to strong global equity markets, pushing up its profit by 36 per cent.

The world’s largest asset manager reported that its assets under management have risen 15 per cent, with revenue growing 11 per cent to $4.7bn (£3.7bn).

However, inflows fell to $57bn (£45.6bn), down from $110bn (£88.1bn) a year earlier, which Blackrock credited to “seasonal outflows from cash management”.

This drop in flows came from across the board, with flows from the Americas more than halving, while flows from the Asia-Pacific region actually went negative.

Blackrock also saw success in the firm’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, reaching $18.7bn (£14.9bn) in assets, which pushed up total flows into ETFs to $67bn (£53.7bn).

The firm’s stock price was up 2.5 per cent today on the results.

Larry Fink, Blackrock’s chair and CEO, praised the “momentum” of the firm, noting “accelerating client activity and line of sight into the funding of significant wealth, institutional, and Aladdin mandates”.

“We see significant growth potential in infrastructure, technology, retirement and whole portfolio solutions,” Fink added.

“We continue to deliver sustained asset and technology services growth at scale, with a double-digit increase in technology services revenue, 180 basis points of margin expansion and 24 per cent growth in EPS year-over-year.”