Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – In a further move to widen its footprint in private and alternative assets, BlackRock has announced the acquisition of leading independent provider of private markets Preqin for approximately $3.2 billion in cash.
Preqin started operations under the brand “Private Equity Intelligence” in 2003, and since expanded to other alternative asset classes including private credit, real estate and natural resources. Today Prequin claims to offer data and research tools on 190,000 funds, 60,000 fund managers and 30,000 allocators. The London-based company, which BlackRock said is projected to generate about $240 million in revenue in 2024, is owned by its management and employees along with Founder Mark O’Hare’s family-holding company, Valhalla Ventures.
BlackRock intends to integrate Preqin’s services with eFront, the private markets offering of BlackRock’s Aladdin platform. BlackRock said the combined offering aims to provide comprehensive data and workflow capabilities for private markets investors and fund managers.
Private markets are the fastest growing segment of asset management, with alternative assets expected to reach nearly $40 trillion by 2030. BlackRock has made big moves across alternatives this year. In January, the firm announced to acquire Global Infrastructure Partners for $3 billion in cash and about 12 million shares of BlackRock common stock, creating an infrastructure investment platform with over $150 billion. And just a few days ago, the firm entered into a strategic partnership to offer custom models including private market strategies combined with ETFs and mutual funds on the GeoWealth platform.
“BlackRock’s vision has always been to bring together investments, technology, and data to offer solutions that meet our clients’ needs across their whole portfolio. As clients increasingly evolve their focus from choosing products to constructing portfolios, this shift requires technology, data, and analytics that create a ‘common language’ for investing across both public and private markets. We see data powering the industry across technology, capital formation, investing, and risk management,” said Rob Goldstein, BlackRock’s Chief Operating Officer. “Every acquisition has been an opportunity to strengthen our capabilities for clients—and in fact, we have been a client of Preqin for many years, and we look forward to welcoming the talented Preqin team to BlackRock.”
“Together with Preqin, we can make private markets investing easier and more accessible while building a better-connected platform for investors and fund managers. This presents a substantial opportunity for Aladdin to bridge the transparency gap between public and private markets through data and analytics,” said Sudhir Nair, Global Head of Aladdin.
“BlackRock is known for excellence in both investment management and financial technology, and together we can accelerate our efforts to deliver better private markets data and analytics to all of our clients at scale,” said Mark O’Hare, Founder of Preqin. “I look forward to joining BlackRock and continuing to play a role in the continued growth and success of Preqin and our customers.” Preqin founder Mark O’Hare will join BlackRock as a Vice Chair after the close of the transaction.
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