BlackRock creates new real assets group

BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager with $4.5 trillion of assets under management, is merging its real estate and infrastructure businesses into a new real assets group as part of the company’s third reorganization in four years.

The new group will be led by Jim Barry, who will remain BlackRock’s global head of infrastructure. The firm’s real estate team is led by global head Marcus Sperber and global chief investment officer Simon Treacy. In an internal memo seen by sister publication PERE, BlackRock chief executive Lawrence Fink and president Rob Kapito said that Sperber “will also play a key leadership role in the new group” and will report to Barry.

“As our infrastructure and real estate businesses have grown, our clients and consultants have been seeking to engage with us across a broader range of illiquid capabilities,” Mark McCombe, global head of BlackRock's institutional client business, and Matthew Botein, global co-head of BlackRock Alternative Investors, wrote in a separate internal memo. “Clients increasingly are viewing 'Real Assets' as a distinct and more integrated asset class, and we believe there is an opportunity for us to be at the forefront of both thinking and investing in this space.”

According to the memo, BlackRock's real assets platform currently includes more than 320 professionals across 22 offices globally and manages more than $29 billion of assets under management. In its 2014 annual report, BlackRock held $22 billion of assets under management in real estate, accounting for nearly all of its $22.8 billion real assets allocation. The company will announce its fourth-quarter and year-end 2015 earnings results on Friday.