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BlackRock is spending top dollar in its quest to dominate private-markets investing, recently agreeing to buy private-credit firm HPS Investment Partners for $12 billion. It's been a busy year with the asset management giant also buying data powerhouse Preqin and private-equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for $3.2 billion and $12.5 billion, respectively, earlier this year.
"Inorganic has always been a fundamental part of the BlackRock strategy," said Martin Small, the firm's chief financial officer, in an interview at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference on Tuesday.
BlackRock isn't afraid to take big swings.
"We've never shied away from taking big bets," CEO Larry Fink said in an analyst call about the GIP acquisition last week.
BlackRock, which oversees $11.5 trillion, is not new to transforming itself through deals. In 2009, it pushed into passive investing when it bought Barclays' asset-management business. The acquistion gave it iShares and helped it become the public markets juggernaut it is today.
The firm has important criteria for its major acquisitions. At the New York City event, Small laid out the top three factors and how HPS met them.
Small, an 18-year BlackRock veteran who is also the global head of corporate strategy, named cultural fit as his top priority.
"We have to acquire the kind of people that are aligned to a 'One BlackRock' culture and mission," he said, referring to the firm's ethos of working collaboratively.
Small was part of many meetings with HPS's executive team to test the waters. He said the cofounders shared important values with Fink and BlackRock President Rob Kapito.
"We all speak the same language," he said. "They're founders. Larry Fink and Rob Kapito are founders. We're client-centered firms. We believe in scale, we believe in global."
The three cofounders of HPS — Scott Kanick, Mike Patterson, and Scot French — will lead a new private financing solutions unit at BlackRock and join the firm's global executive committee.
BlackRock only makes acquisitions that are additive in more ways than one.
"We've been in all the businesses that we've acquired, whether it's private credit or infrastructure or SMA or options or whatever. We've done technology and data in the last year," Small said. "It's not just about new capabilities. It's about new capabilities that make the ones you have better."
Combining BlackRock's existing private credit business with that of HPS will produce a diversified business with a broader reach.
"HPS has been very active in kind of the upper-middle market in terms of direct lending, but also the junior capital solutions," Small said. "Our team has historically been active more in the middle market, kind of $75 million EBITDA borrower base. So there's an enrichment."
"I also think that'll strengthen origination, our ability to do more transactions, meet borrowers where they are," he added.
"You've got to be a credible operator on a consolidated basis of these businesses," Small said of acquisition targets.
Given BlackRock's prowess, it takes a sizable acquisition to move the needle. HPS's $148 billion in client assets fits the bill.
"We'll now have a $220 billion preform a private credit business at BlackRock so we'll be very scaled in that regard," he said.
