BlackRock Inc.'s private-client group, which has twice the sales staff as last December and half again the assets under management, is looking for more distribution through banks.
There is a great opportunity for the PNC affiliate, enlarged by the January acquisition of State Street Research, to increase sales through the bank channel, said Anne F. Ackerley, who leads the group.
"We offer world-class capabilities," Ms. Ackerley said Wednesday. "We want to bring those capabilities to retail clients."
The New York money manager has been "strong with institutional clients," she said, "and we welcome the opportunity to bring these services to retail customers."
The private-client group was managing $50.9 billion on Aug. 31, only 12.3% of BlackRock's total - but $17.9 billion more than at yearend.
Of the increase, $17.5 billion came from State Street, whose parent company, SSRM Holdings Inc., BlackRock bought from MetLife Inc. for $325 million in cash and $50 million in stock. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. of Pittsburgh owns 70% of BlackRock.
The deal doubled the private-client group's sales force, to 90 people, and expanded its menu of open-end equity funds by eight, to 50.
Since January the group has been concentrating on further growth. "We'd like to grow our business and expand our assets under management," Ms. Ackerley said.
The enlarged sales force will enable it to expand distribution of its products and services to more banks, brokers, and independent financial advisers, she said
"We have been a smaller player, and as a smaller player we can only cover so much," Ms. Ackerley said. "We want to increase the firm and the territories we cover.
"We had historically been focused more on wirehouse broker-dealers. Now, over the last couple of years, we have started to look to expand to banks, independent brokers, and registered investment advisers."
The group is still hiring. Last Monday two new managing directors joined it - John J. Brett to lead sales and Sheila Lamb as the head of marketing and product development.
Mr. Brett was the director of the strategic relationship group at Lord Abbett, an independent private money manager in Jersey City; earlier he had been a regional vice president for Merrill Lynch. Ms. Lamb was the head of marketing and product management at Bank of America's Columbia Management; earlier she had been the director of marketing at Credit Suisse Asset Management.
"We have a strong team in place in the private-client group," Ms. Ackerley said. "As we saw more opportunities, we wanted to add senior management."
She said that Mr. Brett and Ms. Lamb would help implement the group's long-term growth strategy, and that the group will continue to add staff as it grows.
Analysts, including Burton Greenwald of the Philadelphia firm BJ Greenwald & Associates, agreed that BlackRock can increase its assets under management in the bank channel.
"As banks continue to look to offer a wider array of open architecture products, the opportunity is great for money managers," Mr. Greenwald said.
