BlackRock hits record assets of US$10.5 trillion with bond inflows

BlackRock’s long-term investment funds took in US$76 billion of net inflows in the first quarter, helping to push the world’s largest money manager to a record US$10.5 trillion of client assets.

The inflows included US$67 billion to ETFs and US$42 billion to fixed-income funds, the New York-based firm said on Friday (Apr 12) in a statement. Net inflows to the company’s long-term investment funds missed the US$85 billion average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

“We see significant growth potential in infrastructure, technology, retirement and whole portfolio solutions, with a strong pipeline that has some of the best breadth that we’ve ever seen,” chief executive officer Larry Fink said in the statement. 

Clients also pulled US$19 billion from the firm’s separate cash-management business and money-market funds. Investors poured US$14 billion to the company’s Bitcoin ETF since it started in mid-January, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Money managers had a bumpy start to the year. The S&P 500 Index rose about 10 per cent in the first quarter, but inflation has persisted – making multiple interest-rate cuts less likely this year. 

Firms have been urging investors to consider moving out of cash, which yields about 5 per cent, to longer-term bonds and other investments. 

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Across the industry, investors continue to pour funds into money-market funds this year – which now have US$6.1 trillion of assets, according to Investment Company Institute data as of April 11. The Bloomberg Agg bond index declined 0.8 per cent in the first quarter.

BlackRock’s adjusted net income rose 23 per cent from a year earlier to US$1.5 billion, or US$9.81 a share, beating Wall Street’s average estimate of US$9.34 a share. 

Shares of BlackRock have declined 3.2 per cent this year as of market close on Thursday, trailing the 9 per cent advance of the S&P 500 index. BLOOMBERG