By Davide Barbuscia
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Top asset manager BlackRock said on Friday it has changed the way Chairman and CEO Larry Fink will be compensated to reflect the company's recent expansion into private markets, which Fink spearheaded last year.
BlackRock, whose assets grew to $11.6 trillion last year, said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing it has included "carried interest" in Fink's compensation, an executive incentive paid in the alternative asset management industry consisting of a share of the profits that funds generate.
"Pursuant to this allocation, Mr. Fink is entitled to receive a percentage of the carry distributions generated from a composite of BlackRock's flagship private markets investment funds that had fundraising activity in 2024," the firm said.
The filing did not disclose Fink's compensation. His total pay for 2023 was $26.9 million, down from $32.7 million a year earlier, according to regulatory filings last year.
The decision was taken by the board of directors of BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, earlier this week.
The compensation incentive comes after the New York-based asset manager aggressively expanded into rapidly growing private markets through several bumper acquisitions in 2024.
BlackRock spent about $25 billion last year on infrastructure investment fund Global Infrastructure Partners and private credit business HPS Investment Partners. It also struck a $3.2 billion deal to acquire UK data provider Preqin as it seeks to offer indexes for private markets.
As its private markets business is growing, a compensation committee of the board of directors decided the CEO’s pay should better match the value generated by the business, said BlackRock in the SEC filing.
"The carry incentive further aligns CEO compensation to both the evolution of BlackRock’s private markets platform ... as well as the corresponding expansion of Mr. Fink’s executive responsibilities," it said.
The incentive will be part of Fink's annual pay starting from his 2024 year-end total compensation package.
"Mr. Fink's potential future carry distributions, if any, are 100% at-risk based on the ultimate performance of the participating funds," said BlackRock.
Since co-founding BlackRock in 1988, Fink, 72, has been at the helm, but a wave of senior executive departures over the past year has reignited speculation about when - and to whom - he will ultimately pass the torch.
U.S. President Donald Trump plans to close the so-called carried interest tax loophole that allows private equity and hedge fund financiers to pay a lower capital gains tax rate on much of their income.
