BlackRock Inc.'s first-quarter net income slid 65% as a battered global equity market continued to shrink assets under management.
Chairman and chief executive Laurence Fink said Tuesday that the company entered the second quarter on a strong footing, with new business coming its way.
Money management companies have suffered from declining asset values, investor redemptions and leaner profit margins during the credit crisis.
The nation's largest publicly traded asset manager reported net income of $84 million, or 62 cents a share, compared with $241 million, or $1.77 a share, a year earlier. Excluding items, earnings fell to 81 cents, from $1.86. Revenue fell 24%, to $987 million as investment and performance fees slid 31%. The results matched the mean of analysts' estimates.
Assets under management were $1.283 trillion, down 2% on the quarter and 6% from a year earlier as new business largely made up for falling asset values.
BlackRock recently confirmed plans to buy the hedge fund manager R3 Capital Management LCC, which runs $1.5 billion of credit strategies.
