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.