Fink Pushes BlackRock Into High-Stakes Bet on Private Markets
- Firm is now the world’s second-biggest infrastructure investor
- Talks with HPS and Millennium follow deals for GIP, Preqin
Larry Fink
Photographer: Victor J. Blue/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Larry Fink turned to big deals to get BlackRock Inc. out in front of a decade of money gushing into index funds. Now he’s doing the same to make sure his firm isn’t left behind in the stampede into private assets.
The longtime BlackRock boss has plunked down roughly $16 billion this year to become the world’s second-biggest infrastructure investor and acquire the data needed to, as he put it, “index the private markets.” Now his firm is in advanced talks to buy HPS Investment Partners — one of the biggest players in private credit — and discussing taking a stake in Izzy Englander’s Millennium Management, one of the world’s preeminent hedge funds.