BlackRock’s total assets under management (AUM) have seen a 14 percent increase to reach $5.2 trillion, its Q1 2017 results have revealed.
The asset manager’s total AUM increased from $4.74 trillion, recorded in Q1 2016.
The total AUM also represents a 5 percent increase on Q4 2016, which closed at $5.15 trillion.
Laurence Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock, said: “BlackRock’s first quarter results reflect the strategic decisions we have made to complement our investment capabilities with industry-leading technology.”
He added: “Over the last 29 years, we’ve kept our focus on the long term, anticipating changes in the asset management ecosystem and consistently investing in our business, to meet the evolving needs of our clients.”
According to the results, equity products make up 53 percent of the total AUM. For Q1, these products saw net inflows of $44.06 billion, creating a total of $2.87 trillion in AUM.
Fixed-income products saw net inflows of $33.37 billion, meaning AUM now sits at $1.63 trillion, 30 percent of the total.
Multi-asset and alternative products saw inflows of $1.55 and $1.36 billion, respectively, with multi-asset AUM increasing to $411.57 billion, and alternatives AUM to $121.16 billion.
For Q1 2017, multi-asset and alternative products made up 8 percent and 2 percent of the total AUM, respectively.
BlackRock also reported that long-term net inflows into iShares exchange-traded funds (ETFs) reached $64.5 billion, thanks to equity net inflows of $44.6 billion, with strength in iShares Core, precision exposure and financial instrument ETFs.
Fink said: “Both retail and institutional investors continued to utilise BlackRock’s iShares ETFs as the building blocks for their portfolios and in combinations to drive active returns.”
“iShares saw record quarterly inflows of $64 billion, again capturing the number one share of industry flows globally, in the US and in Europe, and in equity and fixed income.”
The asset manager’s securities lending revenue failed to match last year’s figures, recording $141 million in Q1 2017, just shy of the $148 million achieved in Q1 2016.
As part of its tangible assets sub-section of the report, BlackRock noted that the number of separate account assets and separate account collateral held under securities lending agreements increased from 177, as of 31 December 2016, to 187 by 31 March.
The value of these assets went from $220 billion last year to $231 billion at the end of March.
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