BlackRock is the world's largest and most prominent [3] asset manager. BlackRock is headquartered in New York City and is the leading provider of investment, advisory and risk managment solutions. The company acquired Barclays Global Investors in December 2009 under BlackRock, making BlackRock the largest money manager in the world. [4]
As of March 31, 2011, BlackRock’s assets under management total $3.648 trillion across equity, fixed income, alternative investments, real estate, and advisory strategies. Through BlackRock Solutions, it offers risk management, strategic advisory, and enterprise investment system services to a broad base of clients with portfolios totaling approximately $9 trillion[5].
Founded in 1988 initially offering fixed income products, BlackRock has become a financial powerhouse while remaining out of the public eye. According to Ralph Schlosstein, CEO of Evercore Partners, a NY-based investment bank: “BlackRock today is one of, if not the, most influential financial institutions in the world.”[6]
BlackRock serves clients in 60 countries, maintaining a major presence in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East. It has offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Princeton, Wilmington, London, Zurich, Paris, Frankfurt, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, Beijing, Sydney, Dubai, and various other cities.[7] Blackrock has approximately 9,300 employees, including more than 700 investment professionals worldwide.

BlackRock, Inc. (BlackRock) is an independent investment management firm. The Company serves its clients as a fiduciary, and derives all of its revenues from client business. It focuses on investment management and risk management. It invests in capital markets globally. Its clients include taxable, tax-exempt and official institutions, retail investors and high net worth individuals. Its platform brings together active (alpha) investments with index (beta) products and risk management to develop tailored solutions for clients. Its product range includes single- and multi-asset class portfolios investing in equities, fixed income and/or money market instruments. It offers products directly and through intermediaries in a range of vehicles, including open-end and closed-end mutual funds, iShares exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other exchange traded products (together with ETFs, ETPs), collective investment funds and separate accounts. It also offers its BlackRock Solutions (BRS) investment systems, risk management and advisory services to institutional investors. In January 2010, the Company completed the acquisition of Helix Financial Group LLC, which provides advisory, valuation and analytics solutions to commercial real estate lenders and investors (the Helix Transaction). In October 2010, the Company completed the acquisition of all of the net assets of Primasia Investment Trust Co., LTD., which sells offshore mutual funds in Taiwan (the Primasia Transaction).
Equity and Fixed Income
Equity and fixed income assets under management (AUM) include a range of active and passive strategies. Merger-related outflows in equities and fixed income, respectively, due to manager concentration.
Multi-Asset Class
BlackRock’s multi-asset class team manages a range of bespoke mandates. Investment solutions include a combination of long-only portfolios and alternative investments, as well as tactical asset allocation overlays. As of December 31, 2010, institutional investors represented 56% of multi-asset class AUM, while retail and high net worth investors accounted for 44%. Flows were almost evenly split as well. During the year ended December 31, 2010, with 59% of multi-asset class AUM managed for clients based in the Americas, 32% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and 9% in Asia-Pacific. As of December 31, 2010, asset allocation and balanced products represented 59% of multi-asset class AUM. As of December 31, 2010, target date and target risk funds is 23% of multi-asset class AUM. As of December 31, 2010, fiduciary management services accounted for 15% of multi-asset class AUM.
Alternative Investments
As of December 31, 2010, the alternative investment client base was predominantly institutional, representing 75% of alternatives AUM with retail and high net worth investors comprising 8% of AUM. As of December31, 2010, iShares consisted 17% of ending AUM. The geographic mix was well diversified, with 55% of AUM managed for clients in the Americas, 24% for clients in EMEA and 21% for clients in Asia-Pacific. During 2010, it launched BlackRock Alternative Investors (BAI) to coordinate its alternative investment efforts, including product management, business development and client service. The products offered under the BAI umbrella are: real estate debt and equity products. Offerings include high yield debt and core, value-added and opportunistic equity portfolios. It also offers open-end hedge funds and similar products and closed-end funds. These products include a range of active and passive products managed through institutional separate accounts.
Cash Management and Securities Lending
Cash management products include taxable and tax-exempt money market funds and customized separate accounts. Portfolios may be denominated in the United States dollar, euro or pound sterling. As of December 31, 2010, its cash management clientele is institutional, with 85% of cash AUM managed for institutions and 15% for retail and high net worth investors. The investor base was also domestic, with 75% managed for investors in the Americas and 25% for clients in other regions, almost all EMEA-based.
Active Strategies
The Company offers two types of active strategies: those that rely primarily on fundamental research and those that utilize primarily quantitative models to drive security selection and portfolio construction. As of December 31, 2010, active long-term AUM consisted of 28% equities, 50% fixed income, 15% multi-asset and 7% alternatives.
Active Equity
A range of products are offered, including global and regional portfolios; value, growth and core products; large, mid and small cap strategies, and selected sector funds. BlackRock manages active equity portfolios for a range of institutional and retail and high net worth investors globally. Approximately 46% of its active equity AUM was managed for investors based in the Americas, 39% in EMEA and 15% in Asia-Pacific.
Active Fixed Income
Fixed income mandates are tailored to client-specified liabilities, accounting, regulatory or rating agency requirements, or other investment policies. As of December 31, 2010, of BlackRock’s total active fixed income AUM, 82% was managed on behalf of institutional investors and 18% for retail and high net worth investors. The client base reflects 69% of active fixed income AUM managed for investors in the Americas, 23% for EMEA domiciled clients, and 8% for investors in the Asia-Pacific region.
Multi-Asset and Alternatives
During 2010, 98% of AUM in multi-asset class mandates, and 75% of AUM in alternative investments are managed in active strategies. As of December 31, 2010, institutional index AUM managed in common trust funds or separate accounts, consisted of 38% of total AUM. As of December 31, 2010, equity products consisted 68% of institutional index AUM. Fixed income products represented 32% of institutional index AUM. Less than 1% of institutional index AUM is in alternatives or multi-asset class products.
iShares / ETPs
During 2010, the Company introduced 78 new ETPs, maintaining dual commitment innovation and responsible product structuring. Its product range offers investors the building blocks required to assemble diversified portfolios. As of December 31, 2010, its iShares product mix included 76%, in equity offerings, and 21%, in bond ETPs. As of Decembr 31, 2010, the remaining 3% of iShares AUM was in multi-asset and alternative investments. In addition, the Company is an ETF manager in Mexico and has products in Chile, Peru, Brazil, Australia, Hong Kong and Japan.
BlackRock Solutions and Advisory
BlackRock offers investment systems, risk management, outsourcing and advisory services under the BlackRock Solutions brand name. Its Aladdin operating platform serves as the investment system for BlackRock and institutional investors globally. BRS also offers comprehensive risk reporting through the Green Package and risk management advisory services, interactive fixed income analytics through its Web-based calculator, AnSer, middle and back office outsourcing services and investment accounting. Clients have also retained BRS’ Financial Markets Advisory (FMA) group for a range of engagements, such as valuation and risk assessment of illiquid assets, portfolio restructuring, workouts and dispositions of distressed assets and financial and balance sheet strategies.
During 2010, the Company added 49 new FMA assignments and completed 33 engagements. As of December 31, 2010, BRS served 149 clients, including banks, insurance companies, official institutions, pension funds, asset managers and other institutional investors across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. During 2010, BlackRock acquired and integrated Helix Financial Group LLC to enhance BRS’ commercial real estate capabilities, which proved to be critical to BRS’ success in winning several high profile assignments.
Transition Management Services
BlackRock also offers transition management services, involving the temporary oversight of a client’s assets as they transition from one manager to another or from one strategy to another. The Company provides a range of service, which includes project management and implementation based on achieving execution consistent with the client’s risk management tolerances. It uses tools and work closely with BlackRock’s trading cost research team to manage four dimensions of risk throughout the transition: exposure, execution, process and operational risk.
Risk & Quantitative Analysis
Across all asset classes the Risk & Quantitative Analysis (RQA) group at BlackRock provides risk management advice and independent risk oversight of the investment management processes, identifies and helps manage counterparty and operational risks, coordinates standards for firm-wide investment performance measurement and determines risk management-related analytical and information requirements.

BGI began as units of Wells Fargo Nikko and Barclays Bank which merged in 1996. Later, it went on to help pioneer the exchange-traded fund business (through its iShares brand), which is a security that can be traded at any time, and whose value is based on the value of a basket of stocks, bonds or commodities. ETFs can give tax advantages and intraday trading mechanical benefits that other products such as mutual funds do not. Since the economics of indexed fund management are heavily influenced by economies of scale, Barclays grew to be the largest asset managing company in the world.
Since 2000, BGI's active fund management business grew significantly, to the point where it accounted for approximately 50% of the firm's revenue in 2006. However, like other actively managed hedge funds, it was badly affected in the quant fund meltdown in 2008. The passively managed iShares arm, in contrast, performed extremely well, accounting for about 45% of the revenue of the firm in 2008. At the end of 2008, the iShares division, with more than $290 billion in assets, accounted for about half the U.S. ETF industry. Global Exchange Traded Funds assets hit an all time high of $1tln ($1,032bln) at the end of December 2009, 45.2% above the $710.9bln at the end of 2008.
In April 2009, under a 45-day "go shop" clause, a bid by BlackRock was announced on June 11, 2009 for the whole of BGI, in a mixed cash-stock deal worth around $13.5 billion (37.8 million shares of common stock and $6.6 billion in cash).

OVERALL
Beta: 1.57
Market Cap (Mil.): $37,676.20
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 192.28
Annual Dividend: 5.50
Yield (%): 2.81
FINANCIALS
BLK.N Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 17.39 11.52 26.26
EPS (TTM): 47.38 -- --
ROI: -- 7.18 4.64
ROE: -- 10.20 9.12


Key people

Laurence D. Fink — Chairman & CEO
Robert S. Kapito — President
Susan L. Wagner[16] - Vice Chairman
Charles S. Hallac - Senior Managing Director, Chief Operating Officer
Ann Marie Petach - Senior Managing Director, Chief Financial Officer
Robert W. Fairbairn - Senior Managing Director, Head of Global Client Group
Blake Grossman - Vice Chairman, Head of Scientific Equities
J. Richard Kushel - Senior Managing Director, Head of Portfolio Management
Bennett W. Golub, Ph.D. - Senior Managing Director, Chief Risk Officer
Rick Rieder - Chief Investment Officer, Fixed Income
J. Richard Kushel - Senior Managing Director - Head of Portfolio Management]

Name Age Since Current Position
Fink, Laurence 58 1998 Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer
Kapito, Robert 53 2007 Vice Chairman of the Board, President
Wagner, Susan 48 2010 Vice Chairman
Wilson, Kendrick 64 2010 Vice Chairman
Petach, Ann 50 2010 Chief Financial Officer, Senior Managing Director
Hallac, Charles 46 2010 Chief Operating Officer, Senior Managing Director
Golub, Bennett 53 2009 Chief Risk Officer, Senior Managing Director
Fairbairn, Robert 45 2010 Senior Managing Director, Head - Global Client Group
Kushel, J. Richard 44 2010 Senior Managing Director, Head - Portfolio Management Group
Bhagat, Rohit 46 2010 Senior Managing Director, Chairman, Asia Pacific
Charrington, N. James 58 2010 Senior Managing Director, Chairman, Europe, Middle East and Africa
Smith, Jeffrey 40 2010 Senior Managing Director, Head - Human Resources
Connolly, Robert 56 1997 Managing Director, General Counsel
Conway, Edwin 2011 Managing Director, Head-U.S. & Canada Institutional business
Fredericks, Michael 2011 Managing Director, Head - U.S. Retail of BlackRock Multi-Asset Client Solutions
O'Brien, Thomas 74 2010 Lead Independent Director
Rohr, James 62 1999 Director
Demchak, William 48 2003 Director
Varley, John 55 2009 Director
Diamond, Robert 59 2009 Director
Montag, Thomas 54 2011 Director
Gerber, Murry 57 2000 Independent Director
Grosfeld, James 73 1999 Independent Director
Komansky, David 71 2003 Independent Director
Robinson, Linda 58 2004 Independent Director
Dunn, Kenneth 59 2005 Independent Director
Dammerman, Dennis 65 2005 Independent Director
Maughan, Deryck 63 2006 Independent Director
Cabiallavetta, Mathis 66 2007 Independent Director
Al-Hamad, Abdlatif Yousef 73 2009 Independent Director
Seidenberg, Ivan 64 2011 Independent Director

COMPANY ADDRESS
Blackrock Inc
40 East 52nd Street
New York NY 10022
 
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