Aperio’s Customized Indexing Capabilities
Enhance BlackRock’s Wealth Platform with Tax-Managed Equities,
Factors, and ESG Strategies
BlackRock’s High-Touch Separately Managed
Account Services Now Provide Whole Portfolio Solutions for
Ultra-High Net Worth Advisors
BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) today announced that it has entered
into a definitive agreement to acquire Aperio from Golden Gate
Capital and Aperio employees for $1.05 billion in cash. Aperio is a
pioneer in customizing tax-optimized index equity separately
managed accounts (SMAs) to reflect each client’s unique risk, tax,
and personal values preferences.
For 20 years, Aperio has been innovating to deliver wealth
managers capabilities that embrace the uniqueness of each investor
and enhance after-tax performance. Aperio also pioneered
individually customized ESG portfolios that enable investors to
elevate the purpose of their wealth and make an impact on causes
deeply important to them. Aperio’s high-touch consultative client
service model focuses on ultra-high net worth households and
institutions served by private banks and the fast-growing
independent registered investment advisor (RIA) market. The U.S.
retail and wealth SMA market totals approximately $1.7 trillion in
assets and is growing at approximately 15% annually and 35% among
RIAs.1 With over $36 billion of assets under management as of
September 30, 2020, Aperio has outpaced the industry with an
average annual organic asset growth rate of nearly 20% over the
past five calendar years.
BlackRock is already a leading provider of SMAs for U.S. wealth
management-focused intermediaries. The firm’s SMA franchise
specializes in providing customized actively-managed fixed income,
equity, and multi-asset strategies. The combination with Aperio
will boost BlackRock’s SMA assets by roughly 30% to over $160
billion. More importantly, the transaction expands the breadth of
personalization capabilities available to wealth managers from
BlackRock via tax-managed strategies across factors, broad market
indexing, and investor ESG preferences across all asset classes.
The combination with Aperio will set a new standard for
personalized whole portfolio solutions in the SMA market.
“The wealth manager’s portfolio of the future will be powered by
the twin engines of better after-tax performance and
hyper-personalization. BlackRock and Aperio, working together, will
bring unmatched capabilities to meet these objectives,” said Martin
Small, head of BlackRock’s U.S. Wealth Advisory business. “The
combination will bring institutional quality, personalized
portfolios to ultra-high net worth advisors and will create one of
the most compelling client opportunities in the investment
management industry today.”
“Aperio has been honored to earn the trust of the most demanding
wealth managers by always putting investors’ interests first and
partnering with advisors to solve the complexities of UHNW
investors through research integrity and excellence in
human-centric client experience. With BlackRock, we have found a
like-minded fiduciary firm with long-standing roots in
tax-efficient indexing, a commitment to sustainable investing, and
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and a track record of delivering
consultative whole portfolio solutions to wealth management
intermediaries,” said Aperio co-heads, Liz Michaels and Ran Leshem.
“We are excited to harness BlackRock’s capabilities and reach to
keep innovating on behalf of an even larger base of wealth managers
and institutional investors.”
BlackRock plans to operate Aperio as a separately branded,
vertically integrated team within BlackRock’s U.S. Wealth Advisory
business. Aperio will retain its investment, business development,
client service, and ESG-SRI processes under the leadership of Ran
Leshem and Liz Michaels, who will become co-heads of the Aperio
team upon joining BlackRock, a transition already announced last
summer by Aperio. Current Aperio CEO, Patrick Geddes, will maintain
his role as Aperio’s Chief Tax Strategist and become a BlackRock
senior advisor, focusing on broadening portfolio construction
research and tools for taxable investors across asset classes.
“We are thrilled to welcome the Aperio team to BlackRock,” said
BlackRock’s Chief Client Officer, Mark McCombe. “We look forward to
bringing Aperio’s innovative mindset in financial services to
BlackRock and drawing on the team’s decades of experience to expand
our offerings to even more advisors and their clients. This
transaction deepens our presence in the San Francisco area and
reflects the critical importance to BlackRock of tapping the
innovation taking place on the West Coast of the U.S.”
Rob Little and Dan Haspel, Managing Directors at Golden Gate
Capital, said, “During our highly successful partnership with the
world class team at Aperio, the company significantly expanded its
client base and capabilities, while continuing to operate with an
unparalleled focus on customized solutions for the new
institutional market. We are very excited for Aperio as they embark
on this next chapter with BlackRock, who is the perfect partner to
bring Aperio’s extreme fiduciary focus and expertise to a global
audience.”
BlackRock’s acquisition of Aperio will be funded from existing
corporate liquidity and is anticipated to close in the first
quarter of 2021. Although minimally dilutive to earnings per share,
the transaction is not expected to be dilutive on a cash basis.
About BlackRock
BlackRock’s purpose is to help more and more people experience
financial well-being. As a fiduciary to investors and a leading
provider of financial technology, our clients turn to us for the
solutions they need when planning for their most important goals.
As of September 30, 2020, the firm managed approximately $7.81
trillion in assets on behalf of investors worldwide. For additional
information on BlackRock, please visit www.BlackRock.com/corporate
| Twitter: @BlackRock | LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/company/BlackRock.
About Aperio
Aperio Group LLC is based in Sausalito, California. Its mission
is to reconfigure wealth management by embracing the unique needs
of each investor, including the impact s/he may want to have on the
world while incorporating the impact of taxes so much of the
investment industry would prefer to ignore. Aperio is a pioneer in
custom index equity portfolios delivering tax optimization,
targeted risk factors or ESG (environmental, social, and
governance) values and shareholder engagement. As an investment
manager, Aperio provides high-touch client service to both taxable
and tax-exempt investors across a broad range of US and
international strategies. For additional information on Aperio,
please visit www.Aperiogroup.com | Blog:
https://www.Aperiogroup.com/blogs | LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/company/Aperio-group-llc
About Golden Gate
Capital
Golden Gate Capital is a San Francisco-based private equity
investment firm with over $17 billion of committed capital. The
principals of Golden Gate Capital have a long and successful
history of investing across a wide range of industries and
transaction types, including going-privates, corporate
divestitures, and recapitalizations, as well as debt and public
equity investments. Notable financial services investments
sponsored by Golden Gate Capital include Angel Island Capital
Management, Pluribus Labs, Nassau Financial Group, Makena Capital
Management, Williston Financial Group and Green Street Advisors.
For more information, visit www.goldengatecap.com.
1 Source: Cerulli Associates, data as of December 31, 2019.
Growth rates 2015-2019.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201123006227/en/
Investor Relations Samantha
Tortora, 212-810-5397 Samantha.Tortora@BlackRock.com
Media Relations Melissa
Garville, 212-810-5528 Melissa.Garville@BlackRock.com
For Aperio Mark Fiore,
415-339-4670 mfiore@aperiogroup.com For
Golden Gate Capital Sard Verbinnen & Co Jenny Gore /
Alyssa Lorenzo GoldenGate-SVC@sardverb.com
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