Assets under management reached $9.4 trillion in the first half of 2023, compared with $6 trillion five years ago, and $4 trillion ten years ago. Over the last decade, Blackrock has doubled its earnings per share, from $17 to $34.

At a time when most asset managers are experiencing difficulties - not to mention the slaughter in the active management universe - Blackrock, on the contrary, is benefiting more than ever from its "platform" positioning: two-thirds of its top 25 clients have increased their allocation to the Group's products over the past five years.

The rate hikes orchestrated by the US central bank will undoubtedly soon come to an end - inflation figures, for their part, point in that direction. This leads Blackrock to predict that its bond management products will have $6 trillion in assets under management by 2030.

The latter have just surpassed $2 trillion in assets under management, twice as much as three years ago at the height of the bond bubble.

An interesting detail this quarter: a quarter of the funds entrusted to Blackrock over the period went into money market products; despite the rally in the SP500, investors are still taking a wait-and-see approach.

In June, Blackrock strengthened its position in private debt with the acquisition of Kreos Capital. This operation in Europe completes the trans-Atlantic positioning of this business segment, launched in 2018 in the United States with the acquisition of Tennenbaum Capital Partners.

The segment remains marginal in terms of assets under management, but the acquisition of Kreos is an interesting contrarian bet at a time when the so-called private equity bubble is deflating. which a plethora of asset managers entered after the great crisis of 2008 and the gradual withdrawal of the banks.

Needless to say, Larry Fink is no stranger to contrarian investing. Blackrock became the giant it is today when it bought Barclays' iShare franchise in 2008, at a time when the British banking group was flirting dangerously with insolvency.

In the same vein, Fink tried to buy Crédit Suisse earlier this year, but the Swiss banking regulator wouldn't let him. The American asset management magnate has made it clear that he is on the hunt for an "elephant" as his next "strategic" acquisition.

As such, it's a safe bet that Blackrock will be well placed to capitalize on the next big shake-up in the financial markets.