Focus on quarterly earnings contrary to long-term value creation: BlackRock CEO

New York

MOST money managers clamour for companies to provide detailed guidance on their next quarter, down to the penny - but not the world's largest investor.

Laurence D Fink, co-founder and chief executive of BlackRock, which with more than US$4.6 trillion in assets under management makes it the world's largest investor, sent a letter to 500 chief executives on Monday urging them for the first time to stop providing quarterly earnings estimates. "Today's culture of quarterly earnings hysteria is totally contrary to the long-term approach we need," Mr Fink wrote.

The proposal, a provocative reco…