BlackRock’s assets under management declined by 3% in the second quarter to $3.56 trillion (€2.9 trillion) owing to a combination of negative performance and net outflows, according to its quarterly results.
The company, which is the largest asset manager by a wide margin, attributed $94.7 billion of the decline to market movements.
The remaining $29.4 billion was owing to net outflows, including $6.2 billion of net outflows from equity and alternative products, and $31.6 billion of advisory distributions related to the wind-down of the Maiden Lane portfolios.
The Maiden Lane portfolios are groups of collateralised debt obligations that the Federal Reserve acquired during the bailout of American International Group in 2008 and which BlackRock was managing.
BlackRock also reported some business gains, including net inflows into fixed income products of $5.6 billion and into multi-asset products of $4.3 billion.
Laurence Fink, chairman and chief executive of BlackRock, said the company had demonstrated its commitment to shareholders during the quarter by repurchasing $1 billion of shares from Barclays. He also pointed to the acquisition of Swiss Re Private Equity Partners, which extends BlackRock’s alternative investment operations in Europe.
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