(Bloomberg) -- BlackRock Inc.’s Robert Kapito, president of the world’s largest money manager, said the firm’s size will not prevent it from increasing its revenue and assets under management.
“I’m not afraid of the size and we’re not too big,” Kapito said today at the Goldman Sachs 2013 U.S. Financial Services Conference in New York. BlackRock’s growth will come from opportunities including investors in Asia, alternatives to traditional investments such as stocks and bonds, and registered investment advisers, he said.
BlackRock, co-founded by executives including Chief Executive Officer Laurence D. Fink and Kapito in 1988, used acquisitions to increase assets under management to $4.1 trillion. The New York-based firm diversified through acquisitions including that of State Street Research & Management Co. and Merrill Lynch & Co.’s investment unit to add stocks and other assets. BlackRock’s 2009 purchase of Barclays Plc’s investment division gave it iShares, the world’s biggest provider of exchange-traded funds.
Fink has said BlackRock has the potential to increase its assets by about 5 percent annually by developing new ETFs and expanding its reach among individual investors.
Large money managers such as BlackRock are among non-bank financial companies that the Financial Stability Oversight Council is evaluating to determine whether they pose a risk to the financial system and thus require Federal Reserve oversight. BlackRock has said a study of asset managers by the Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research didn’t link the size of a money manager to risks posed by certain products and practices.
