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BlackRock ( BLK ) assets hit record $11.6 trillion last year

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'Carried interest' incentive follows aggressive 2024

expansion

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New Fink package to start with end-2024 compensation

By Davide Barbuscia

NEW YORK, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Top asset manager BlackRock ( BLK )

said on Friday it has changed the way Chairman and CEO

Larry Fink will be compensated to reflect the company's recent

expansion into private markets, which Fink spearheaded last

year.

BlackRock ( BLK ), whose assets grew to $11.6 trillion last year,

said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing it has

included "carried interest" in Fink's compensation, an executive

incentive paid in the alternative asset management industry

consisting of a share of the profits that funds generate.

"Pursuant to this allocation, Mr. Fink is entitled to

receive a percentage of the carry distributions generated from a

composite of BlackRock's ( BLK ) flagship private markets investment

funds that had fundraising activity in 2024," the firm said.

The filing did not disclose Fink's compensation. His total

pay for 2023 was $26.9 million, down from $32.7 million a year

earlier, according to regulatory filings last year.

The decision was taken by the board of directors of

BlackRock ( BLK ), the world's largest asset manager, earlier this week.

The compensation incentive comes after the New York-based

asset manager aggressively expanded into rapidly growing private

markets through several bumper acquisitions in 2024.

BlackRock ( BLK ) spent about $25 billion last year on

infrastructure investment fund Global Infrastructure Partners

and private credit business HPS Investment Partners. It also

struck a $3.2 billion deal to acquire UK data provider Preqin as

it seeks to offer indexes for private markets.

As its private markets business is growing, a compensation

committee of the board of directors decided the CEO's pay should

better match the value generated by the business, said BlackRock ( BLK )

in the SEC filing.

"The carry incentive further aligns CEO compensation to both

the evolution of BlackRock's ( BLK ) private markets platform ... as

well as the corresponding expansion of Mr. Fink's executive

responsibilities," it said.

The incentive will be part of Fink's annual pay starting

from his 2024 year-end total compensation package.

"Mr. Fink's potential future carry distributions, if any,

are 100% at-risk based on the ultimate performance of the

participating funds," said BlackRock ( BLK ).

Since co-founding BlackRock ( BLK ) in 1988, Fink, 72, has been at

the helm, but a wave of senior executive departures over the

past year has reignited speculation about when - and to whom -

he will ultimately pass the torch.

U.S. President Donald Trump plans to close the so-called

carried interest tax loophole that allows private equity and

hedge fund financiers to pay a lower capital gains tax rate on

much of their income.