Just in case anyone is wondering why BlackRock is trying to snap up Barclays Global Investors, a small reminder dropped into my mailbox today with a preview of research on the exchange traded fund industry, albeit delivered by BGI.
It quotes data from mutual fund consultant Strategic Insight to the effect that net sales of mutual funds were minus $6bn in the first three months of the year compared to net sales of $7.7bn for ETFs, one good reason why the US money manager might be keen to get hold of BGI’s business.
Another is that BGI’s iShares ETF business has almost 49 per cent of global market share and just happens to be the world’s largest ETF provider in terms of product numbers and assets under management.
ETFs are attracting a growing number of investors fed up with active fund managers’ failure to deliver good performance, and BlackRock is keen to get a piece of the action.
And just to whet its appetite further, plans to roll out over another 767 new ETFs are underway from providers, say BGI.
