Inflows have reached $205bn in the last three months. ETFs continue to attract most of this fresh capital, while the breakthrough in private assets continues, particularly following the acquisition of Global Infrastructure Partners and HPS Investment Partners.
However, with $321bn in assets under management, this segment, while more profitable than ETF assets, remains secondary in the consolidated total, representing only 3% of assets under management.
Nevertheless, it is set to grow with the financing of mega infrastructure projects, such as those involving server centers. BlackRock says that the rise of AI and data will require $1.5 trillion in investment over the next five years: Larry Fink's company intends to take the lion's share.
In any case, Q3 confirms the rebound in inflows after three disappointing quarters. This rebound began in Q2 of the year, but BlackRock had to contend with the withdrawal of a large Asian sovereign wealth fund, which somewhat dampened the rosy picture.
This recovery in inflows has, of course, been helped by financial markets that have remained buoyant since fears about tariffs subsided. Larry Fink, who had been highly critical of tariffs, has recently softened his stance; it is true that BlackRock has an interest in remaining in the administration's favor.
The group, which has doubled its revenue and profits in ten years, should be able to return at least $5.1bn to its shareholders this year, including more than $3.2bn in dividends and the rest in share buybacks.
Its current market capitalization of $185bn therefore represents a multiple of 35x the profit redistributable to shareholders. This represents a sharp jump in valuation over the last two years, since in 2023 it had fallen to 20x redistributable profit.
