BlackRock plans to raise US$10 bil for equity investments

(Feb 8): BlackRock plans to raise about US$10 billion ($13.2 billion) as part of a new business that would take direct stakes in companies, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The move marks a new strategy for the company that manages more than US$6 trillion for investors through publicly offered mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, many of which own broad swaths of the market.

A multibillion-dollar fund could put the world’s largest asset manager in more direct competition to own promising private companies with the likes of Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett and private-equity firms, including Blackstone Group LP, from which it was initially spun out.

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