iShares flows “pick up” in Q2

BlackRock has reported $12.9bn in net inflows in its iShares business at the end of the second quarter, despite the firm recording a total loss of $213.3bn in assets under management (AUM) in this period.

In comparison, BlackRock saw $3.3bn from iShares investors in the US and Canada in the first quarter of this year, and $0.8bn from iShares investors across all other regions.

The firm's second quarter results show AUM in fixed income increased to $1.08trn, with net new business of $8.5bn in index fixed income coming primarily from iShares ETFs.

In contrast, BlackRock saw $5.9bn of net outflows in active fixed income strategies.

BlackRock's fixed income AUM in the first quarter of this year increased by $3.6bn to $1.06trn, including net new business of $7.1bn in iShares. This was offset by $14.4bn of outflows in active products.

The report shows new business flows in alternative investment AUM in the second quarter, which amounted to £101.5bn, was dominated by investors outside of the Americas, with interest stemming from iShares, institutional, retail and high net worth clients.

BlackRock CEO Laurence Fink says going into the merger with Barclays Global Investors last year meant some clients would have to address concentration issues and that the active quantitative style was under stress industry-wide.

He says: "As expected, these two issues continued to drive outflows, and are expected to do so for at least another quarter."

He added: "Aside from these outflows, trends in long-term new business were very positive and our pipeline shows increasing new business momentum. Retail flows have been particularly strong in the United States, and iShares flows picked up nicely in the second quarter."