Bengaluru/New York — BlackRock’s assets under management hit a new high in the second quarter as global markets rallied on the prospect of trade deals and interest rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve, brushing aside earlier tariff-related jitters.
Shares of the company rose 1.1% in premarket trading.
A robust labour market, a healthy consumer and hopes that President Donald Trump would ease some of his harsher trade measures pushed major US indices to all-time highs through the end of June.
That marked a sharp reversal from early April, when tumult in US trade and geopolitical policy battered confidence and fuelled recession fears, concerns that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink echoed at the time.
The benchmark S&P 500 index rose 10.57% in the second quarter of 2025 after escaping bear market territory.
Scrutinised
BlackRock’s assets under management rose to $12.53-trillion in the quarter ended June 30, from $10.65-trillion last year. However, long-term net inflows fell to $46bn in the quarter, down 9.8%.
“We generated 6% organic base fee growth for the second quarter and the first half of 2025 and 7% over the last 12 months,” Fink said.
As equities rallied, fixed-income products saw outflows of $4.66bn, BlackRock said.
Trends for the business are being closely scrutinised, given the turbulence in US treasuries this quarter. The benchmark 10-year yield recorded one of its biggest weekly increases since 2001 after the “Liberation Day” shock.
BlackRock's fixed-income executives expressed concerns last month that ballooning US debt could suppress appetite for longer-dated treasuries and the dollar, which recorded its worst first-half performance this year since 1973.
Safe haven assets like treasuries and the greenback have also suffered as markets price in tax cuts and spending hikes from Trump’s recently passed “Big Beautiful Bill”, which non-partisan analysts predict will add more than $3-trillion to the country’s $36.2-trillion debt.
Competition
A weaker dollar tends to boost returns from foreign-currency assets. BlackRock recorded a positive foreign exchange impact of $171.52bn in the quarter, compared with a $35.45bn downward revision in the year-ago period.
Its performance fees fell 42.7% to $94m in the reported period, after falling nearly 71% in the first quarter. The low-cost investments juggernaut has been pivoting towards private markets, which provide higher margin revenue compared to those from ETFs, where BlackRock faces intense competition and fee compression as the market matures.
Private markets saw inflows of $6.82bn in the quarter. The New York-based firm said at its investor day last month that its private markets and technology businesses would make up 30% or more of its total revenue by 2030, up from 15% in 2024. As part of this push, BlackRock last month unveiled plans to include private assets in its retirement plans, which account for more than half of the money the company manages.
Technology services revenue rose 26.3% to $499m, reflecting the first full quarter of data provider Preqin, which BlackRock bought in a $3.2bn deal last year. The deal closed on March 3 2025.
Its total revenue — most of which is earned as a percentage of assets under management — rose to $5.42bn from $4.81bn a year ago.
BlackRock’s total expenses rose to $3.69bn from $3.01bn last year.
Adjusted profit came in at $1.88bn, or $12.05 a share, for the three months ended June 30, up from $1.55bn, or $10.36 a share, a year earlier.
Reuters
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