Boston — It’s tough trying to be the Amazon.com of ETFs. While BlackRock raked in a record $74bn in exchange-traded fund flows in the second quarter, that did not translate into revenue gains that analysts had hoped for. Like Amazon did with online retailing, BlackRock got into the ETF arena early and has focused relentlessly on building its business by volume — gathering as much investor money as possible. And just like Jeff Bezos, who ceded profit to win share and trounce rivals, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has seen expenses rise. BlackRock ended the quarter with $5.69-trillion in assets under management, up from the preceding quarter, when managed assets totalled $4.89-trillion. The company’s net income rose 8.6% to $857m in the second quarter. Revenue, while up — it rose 6% to $2.97bn — missed analysts’ estimates. And BlackRock’s second-quarter costs increased in almost every category including employee compensation, and distribution and servicing costs. Asset managers are facing p...
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