Consolidation is intensifying in the asset management industry. The world number one, BlackRock, announced on Friday January 12 the acquisition of the American investment fund Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for the equivalent of 12.5 billion dollars (11.4 billion euros), including $3 billion in cash.
This is the largest acquisition made by BlackRock since that of Barclays Global Investors for $13.5 billion in 2009, which allowed it to double in size and above all to become the world leader in listed index funds (or Exchange-Traded Funds). “When we made this strategic move into index funds, skeptics were everywhere. Now index funds are everywhere »recalled BlackRock co-founders, CEO Larry Fink and Chairman Rob Kapito, in an internal memo seen by The world.
The 100 billion dollars managed by GIP may seem like a drop in the bucket compared to the 10,000 billion entrusted to BlackRock by its clients, but this acquisition allows the Wall Street institution to ride another rising wave, that of investment in unlisted assets, and in particular in infrastructure. While transport, wastewater treatment plants and renewable energies require colossal funding due to the ecological transition, for Mr Fink and Mr Shapiro, this demand which States cannot satisfy, creates a “unprecedented opportunity” to invest private capital in this asset class. And the commissions paid are much higher than those of index management…
Rising rates
A giant in listed assets, BlackRock had already diversified into the unlisted sector in recent years, and in particular, since 2011, in infrastructure, where it has a portfolio of $50 billion in assets. But the company was looking for a major acquisition so as not to be let down by Blackstone, Apollo and other titans of alternative management, which are slowly building investment platforms capable of offering funds pensions or wealthy families with investment possibilities ranging from private equity to real estate, including credit.
In 2023, the British CVC Capital Partners acquired DIF Capital Partners, a Dutch infrastructure fund (16 billion euros in assets managed), while the American TPG strengthened its position in credit with the acquisition from one of the sector’s references, Angelo Gordon.
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