NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) today announced the launch of its global
real estate securities capability – an investment platform born from
BlackRock’s long-term experience in the real estate investment business
and its proven expertise in Fundamental Equity investment.
Industry veteran Mark Howard-Johnson has been appointed as the Global
Head of Real Estate Securities Management to lead the development of
this business. One of Mr. Howard-Johnson’s first priorities will be to
build a global team which is expected to include approximately six
additional investment professionals by year-end.
The new global real estate securities team will work closely with
BlackRock’s real estate research and investment professionals to
identify and pursue investible trends in the real estate industry. The
team will also look to leverage the broad investment market insights and
trading expertise of the Fundamental Equity teams at BlackRock. The team
will employ these resources as part of its intense fundamental approach
to investing in real estate securities.
“BlackRock is already the largest manager in the REIT sector across a
broad range of products – expanding this expertise for dedicated
actively managed products is a natural extension of the firm’s robust
real estate capabilities,” said Jack Chandler, Global Head of Real
Estate at BlackRock. “This will further strengthen our ability to offer
our institutional and retail clients an unrivaled set of real estate
solutions. We are thrilled to have such an exceptional and experienced
talent as Mark to drive the build-out of this addition to our platform.”
Mr. Howard-Johnson commented: “I am delighted to join the BlackRock real
estate team to develop its actively managed public real estate
securities platform. BlackRock real estate investments span a wide range
of strategies which now, with the addition of the active strategy, will
be even more integrated and complementary of each other. I’m proud to be
part of this superior team and look forward to strengthening the firm’s
product offering for the benefit of our clients."
Mr. Howard-Johnson most recently served as Chief Investment Officer at
Building & Land Technology, where he was responsible for launching its
real estate securities management effort. Previously, Mr. Howard-Johnson
was Global Head and Chief Investment Officer of REIT management at
Goldman Sachs Asset Management. In addition to growing the business to
over $5 billion in assets under management, his team’s U.S. flagship
offering produced strong results for clients on both an absolute and
relative basis. He also helped launch real estate securities products
that pursued income, international, and long/short strategies. He holds
a CFA and graduated from Dartmouth College.
About BlackRock
BlackRock is a leader in investment management, risk management and
advisory services for institutional and retail clients worldwide. At
March 31, 2012, BlackRock’s AUM was $3.684 trillion. BlackRock offers
products that span the risk spectrum to meet clients’ needs, including
active, enhanced and index strategies across markets and asset classes.
Products are offered in a variety of structures including separate
accounts, mutual funds, iShares® (exchange-traded
funds), and other pooled investment vehicles. BlackRock also offers risk
management, advisory and enterprise investment system services to a
broad base of institutional investors through BlackRock Solutions®.
Headquartered in New York City, as of March 31, 2012, the firm has
approximately 9,900 employees in 27 countries and a major presence in
key global markets, including North and South America, Europe, Asia,
Australia, and the Middle East and Africa. For additional information,
please visit the Company's website at www.blackrock.com.
Forward-looking Statements
This press release, and other statements that BlackRock may make, may
contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act, with respect to BlackRock’s future
financial or business performance, strategies or expectations.
Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words or phrases
such as “trend,” “potential,” “opportunity,” “pipeline,” “believe,”
“comfortable,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “current,” “intention,”
“estimate,” “position,” “assume,” “outlook,” “continue,” “remain,”
“maintain,” “sustain,” “seek,” “achieve,” and similar expressions, or
future or conditional verbs such as “will,” “would,” “should,” “could,”
“may” or similar expressions.
BlackRock cautions that forward-looking statements are subject to
numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which change over time.
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and
BlackRock assumes no duty to and does not undertake to update
forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from
those anticipated in forward-looking statements and future results could
differ materially from historical performance.
In addition to risk factors previously disclosed in BlackRock’s
Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) reports the following
factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially
from forward-looking statements or historical performance: (1) the
introduction, withdrawal, success and timing of business initiatives and
strategies; (2) changes and volatility in political, economic or
industry conditions, the interest rate environment, foreign exchange
rates or financial and capital markets, which could result in changes in
demand for products or services or in the value of assets under
management; (3) the relative and absolute investment performance of
BlackRock’s investment products; (4) the impact of increased
competition; (5) the impact of future acquisitions or divestitures; (6)
the unfavorable resolution of legal proceedings; (7) the extent and
timing of any share repurchases; (8) the impact, extent and timing of
technological changes and the adequacy of intellectual property and
information security protection; (9) the impact of legislative and
regulatory actions and reforms, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street
Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and regulatory, supervisory or
enforcement actions of government agencies relating to BlackRock,
Barclays Bank PLC or The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.; (10)
terrorist activities, international hostilities and natural disasters,
which may adversely affect the general economy, domestic and local
financial and capital markets, specific industries or BlackRock; (11)
the ability to attract and retain highly talented professionals; (12)
fluctuations in the carrying value of BlackRock’s economic investments;
(13) the impact of changes to tax legislation, including taxation on
products or transactions which could affect the value proposition to
clients and, generally, the tax position of the Company; (14)
BlackRock’s success in maintaining the distribution of its products;
(15) the impact of BlackRock electing to provide support to its products
from time to time; and (16) the impact of problems at other financial
institutions or the failure or negative performance of products at other
financial institutions.
BlackRock's Annual Report on Form 10-K and BlackRock's subsequent
filings with the SEC, accessible on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov
and on BlackRock’s website at www.blackrock.com,
discuss these factors in more detail and identify additional factors
that can affect forward-looking statements. The information contained on
the Company’s website is not a part of this press release.
Media Relations:
BlackRock, Inc.
Brian Beades,
212-810-5596
Brian.Beades@BlackRock.com
or
Farrell
Denby, 212-810-8034
Farrell.Denby@BlackRock.com
Source: BlackRock, Inc.