BlackRock, T. Rowe Price among Q1 asset gainers

BlackRock on Thursday reported $3.648 trillion in assets under management for the quarter ended March 31, up 2.4% from the prior quarter and up 8.4% from the year before.

BlackRock said in a news release the $87.5 billion rise in AUM from the prior quarter reflected $100 billion in market gains offset by net outflows of just more than $12 billion.

The firm enjoyed net inflows for its long-term equity, fixed-income, multiasset and alternatives strategies of more than $16 billion during the latest quarter. That total reflected $34.7 billion in overall inflows, offset by $18.4 billion of what BlackRock has called “merger-related” outflows as some clients continued to pare back their exposure to any single manager following BlackRock's December 2009 acquisition of Barclays Global Investors.

However, in a conference call Thursday to discuss the firm's results, Laurence D. Fink, BlackRock's chairman and CEO, said with the latest quarter, those “concentration-related” outflows were largely complete, and BlackRock will no longer break out those numbers in coming quarters.

For the latest quarter, Mr. Fink said clients — institutional and retail — continued to add more risk to their portfolios, with many institutional clients pursuing a “barbell” approach with allocations to both passive strategies at one end of the risk spectrum and higher-alpha offerings on the other.

The company reported revenue, on a GAAP basis, of $2.3 billion for the latest quarter, down 8% from the prior quarter — as seasonal performance fees dropped to $83 million, or 66%, from $243 million in the prior quarter — but up 14% from the year before.

Net income, attributable to BlackRock Inc., came to $568 million, down 14% from the prior quarter but up 34% from the year before.

T. Rowe Price on Thursday reported a record $509.9 billion in assets under management as of March 31, up 5.8% from the prior quarter and up 22% from the year before.

Net inflows of $5.8 billion for the latest quarter were down from $6.9 billion for the prior quarter and $10.3 billion for the year-earlier quarter.

The company said its mutual fund AUM rose 6% from the prior quarter, or $17.6 billion, to $300.2 billion. That increase reflected $4.4 billion in net inflows and $13.2 billion in market-related gains.

AUM in “other investment portfolios” rose 5.2% from the prior quarter, or $10.3 billion, to $209.7 billion, with $1.4 billion in net inflows and $8.9 billion in market-related gains.

That $1.4 billion in net inflows to “other investment portfolios” was down from $3.7 billion in the prior quarter, with the firm's news release saying strong net inflows to subadvised mutual funds were “partially offset by net outflows from a few institutional investors who restructured their equity investment portfolios.” T. Rowe spokesman Brian Lewbart declined to elaborate.

In the news release, James A.C. Kennedy, the company's CEO and president, noted that T. Rowe's net revenues, net income and earnings also were at record levels for the latest quarter. Revenues came to $682.4 million, up 5.4% from the prior quarter and up 23% from the year before. Net income came to $194.6 million, up 1.6% from the prior quarter and up 25% from the year before.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management reported $284 billion in assets under management or supervision as of March 31, up 2% from the prior quarter and up 8% from the year before.

For the latest quarter, the company reported net inflows of $1.4 billion, rebounding from net outflows of $600 million for the prior quarter and outflows of $6.8 billion for the year-earlier quarter.

By segment, MSIM reported $2.9 billion in net inflows for its traditional asset management business, composed of the money manager's equity, fixed-income, liquidity and alternatives offerings, up from $1.1 billion for the prior quarter and net outflows of $7.7 billion for the year-earlier quarter.

MSIM's real estate investing division, meanwhile, garnered $200 million in net inflows, reversing an equivalent net outflow in the prior quarter but lower than the year-earlier quarter's net inflows of $500 million.

MSIM's merchant banking segment, with its private equity investments and FrontPoint hedge fund-of-funds business, saw net outflows of $1.7 billion, compared with outflows of $1.5 billion for the prior quarter and net inflows of $400 million for the year-earlier quarter. The latest outflows came as the company completed the restructuring of its ownership of FrontPoint, which left its stake below the point where FrontPoint's AUM is counted toward MSIM's totals.

Net revenues for MSIM came to $626 million for the latest quarter, down 27% from the prior quarter and down 4% from the year before. In a news release, MSIM noted that results for the current quarter “included gains of $42 million compared with gains of $119 million in the prior year related to principal investments held by certain consolidated real estate funds.”

Net income applicable to Morgan Stanley came to $74 million, down 57% from the prior quarter and down 32% from the year before.

Janus Capital Group had AUM of $173.5 billion in the first quarter, a 3.7% increase from the previous quarter and 8.4% higher than a year earlier.

According to the company's earnings statement, the $6.7 billion increase is the result of market gains and was partially offset by $2.7 billion in net outflows.

Janus' institutional quant division, INTECH, had net outflows of $2.6 billion for the quarter while fundamental equities had $500 million in net outflows. Fixed income long-term net inflows totaled $400 billion, the release says.

Janus has suffered net outflows for the last seven quarters, the company's financial statements show.

The company's net income was $37.9 million for the first quarter, a 42% decline from the previous quarter, but a 21% increasefrom the first quarter of 2010.

Revenues for the first quarter were $265 million, down 3.9% in the previous quarter but up 7.3% from a year earlier.

Blackstone Group reported $124 billion in fee-earning assets under management as of March 31, up 26% from a year earlier.

Private equity assets increased 43% to $35.9 billion, while real estate assets gained 11% to $26.5 billion, according to Blackstone's earnings statement.

Net first-quarter income was $42.7 million, compared with a loss a year earlier of $121.4 million. It was the first profit under generally accepted accounting principles since Blackstone went public in 2007.

Blackstone funds had a record $31.8 billion of committed but uninvested capital at the end of the first quarter.

The asset increase was driven by a sharp increase in performance fees in Blackstone's real estate business, offset by lower advisory fees, noted Joan Solatar, senior managing director, head of the external relations and strategy group. News Editor Rick Baert and Bloomberg News contributed to this story.