$400 billion fundraising target! "The world's largest asset management" reveals strategy: within 5 years, private equity and technology business will account for 30%, and company revenue will double

An unprecedented bet! The world's largest asset management company BlackRock has announced an ambitious five-year plan: to raise $400 billion and double its revenue and stock price.

On June 12, according to The Wall Street Journal, BlackRock disclosed to investors its specific path for expanding into the private market, planning to raise $400 billion for alternative investment funds such as private equity, private credit, real estate, and infrastructure by 2030. This is the first time the company has provided a specific forecast for the fundraising scale in the private market.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink stated at the New York investor conference, "We focus on executing these integrations to bring BlackRock's comprehensive services to every client. Through execution, I believe that doubling operating income and stock price is entirely achievable."

Fink's goal is that, over the next five years, the share of private markets and technology business in the company's total revenue will soar from 15% in 2024 to over 30% five years later. This means that BlackRock's current market value of approximately $140 billion could reach $280 billion in five years, with revenue growing from last year's $20 billion to $35 billion or more.

The Strategic Logic Behind the $30 Billion Acquisition Frenzy

Reports indicate that BlackRock's ambitions in the private market have not been achieved overnight; over the past 18 months, the company has aggressively expanded its private business landscape through a series of significant acquisitions.

Since early last year, the company has spent nearly $30 billion acquiring three heavyweight private asset firms: private infrastructure investor Global Infrastructure Partners, private credit management firm HPS Investment Partners, and private asset data provider Preqin.

The business logic behind this acquisition strategy is clear: managing private assets for institutional investors such as insurance companies and pension funds allows for higher management fees compared to publicly traded stocks and bond funds, with relatively higher competitive barriers.

Fink likened the current expansion in the private market to the 2009 acquisition of Barclays' iShares index fund business.

At that time, during the early recovery from the financial crisis, the deal allowed BlackRock to gain trillions of dollars in assets over the next decade, fundamentally changing the company's fate. Fink said:

"Wall Street did not immediately recognize how that deal would change BlackRock, and it feels a bit like when we acquired BGI (Barclays Global Investors). I was not satisfied with the stock price after that deal, but once we proved that the overall strength far exceeded the sum of its parts, the stock price broke through, and I believe today will be the same."

Market Reaction is Tepid

BlackRock faces significant challenges as well. Although the private asset market has long surpassed the traditional private equity realm, acquisition giants such as Blackstone, KKR, and Apollo Global Management still dominate the landscape It is worth noting that Blackstone, as the largest alternative asset management company, has a market value that exceeds that of BlackRock, despite managing only a small portion of the latter's total assets.

The market response to BlackRock's ambitious five-year plan has been rather lukewarm. BlackRock's stock price fell slightly on Thursday, having accumulated a 3.5% decline year-to-date.

Reports indicate that market skepticism is mainly focused on two aspects:

First, whether this unprecedented scale experiment will become difficult to manage in the decentralized asset management industry that relies on star talent;

Second, whether Fink's strategy of betting that BlackRock can retain more client investment funds by becoming a "full-service" investment management company is truly feasible.

In the face of skepticism, Fink has shown a consistently tough attitude: "I have a high tolerance for disruption, but a very low tolerance for mediocrity, possibly zero tolerance." Fink also reiterated that he has no plans to retire in the short term