(Reuters) – BlackRock Inc posted a 30% drop in second-quarter profit on Friday as the turmoil in the global markets discouraged investors, shrinking the world’s largest asset manager’s fee income.
The pullback in the pandemic-era stimulus from the U.S. Federal Reserve has hit the risk appetite of investors who have rejigged porfolios this year towards safe-haven and fixed-income products, with equity markets tumbling on recession fears.
The current macroeconomic environment, ridden with worries of surging inflation, geopolitical turmoil and rate hikes, has only added to the pressures of fund managers, as a large part of their business is dependent on market conditions.
Revenue in the quarter for BlackRock fell 6% to $4.53 billion.
Adjusted profit fell to $1.12 billion, or $7.36 per share, for the three months ended June 30, from $1.61 billion, or $10.45 per share, a year earlier.
Analysts on average had expected the asset manager to report a profit of $7.90 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru and Carolina Mandl in New York; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
