(Reuters) -BlackRock Inc posted an 18% drop in first-quarter profit on Friday as the market turmoil last month due to the recent banking crisis squeezed its fee income.
The New York-based company ended the quarter with $9.1 trillion in assets under management, down from $9.57 trillion a year earlier and up from $8.59 trillion in the fourth quarter.
Markets took a beating in the later part of the first quarter as recent bank collapses in the U.S. triggered liquidity fears which eroded the value of several securities amid continued interest rate hikes.
Last month, BlackRock Chief Executive Larry Fink in his annual letter to CEOs and investors, wrote that after the banking turmoil, the financial industry could see what he termed “liquidity mismatches”.
On an adjusted basis, the world’s largest asset manager earned $1.2 billion, or $7.93 per share, for the three months ended March 31, compared with $1.46 billion, or $9.52 per share, a year earlier.
Quarterly revenue fell to $4.2 billion from $4.7 billion.
(Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru and Davide Barbuscia in New York; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
