BlackRock, Inc. will acquire Impact Investing, a Sydney, Australia based software development company specializing in equity portfolio management and analytical software tools. Impact will be fully integrated into BlackRock Solutions, a unit of BlackRock that offers a broad range of tools and services designed to help institutions understand and manage their capital markets exposures and risks.
BlackRock Solutions offers a suite of investment tools designed to support a highly controlled, scalable and efficient investment management process. Aladdin, its enterprise investment platform, combines sophisticated risk analytics with portfolio management, trading and operations tools. In total, over $7 trillion in assets are processed on the Aladdin platform.
Impact Investing specializes in analytical software tools used by equity portfolio managers to construct efficient portfolios, and communicate their conclusions and results. Total assets directly managed using the Impact system globally exceed $1 trillion.
“We look forward to incorporating Impacts functionality into Aladdins analytics and trading capabilities and are particularly excited about the enhanced equity analysis and portfolio visualization capabilities this will provide − further strengthening the platforms multi-asset capabilities,” says Robert Goldstein, managing director and head of relationship management for BlackRock Solutions. “We believe the combination will provide tremendous value to both Impact and BlackRock Solutions clients. Given that BlackRock is among Impacts oldest clients in support of our asset management business, this was a very natural functional and organizational fit.”
“Impact recognized that we needed a partner to expand the scope of our capabilities and continue to meet the growing demands of our clients,” says Nigel Allfrey, chief executive officer of Impact Investing. “Combining BlackRock Solutions significant experience in fixed income and derivatives analytics, as well as its multi-asset class trading platform and global service model with Impact will provide a unique solution to the marketplace.”
“I am enormously proud of the teams accomplishments and the confidence our clients have shown in Impact since our founding in 2002,” says Paul Durham, Impact managing director and co-founder. “Partnering with BlackRock Solutions, the leading provider of risk management services in the world, will afford our team, and more importantly our clients, with enormous strategic opportunities. We look forward to joining the team and ensuring a seamless transition for our existing client base.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.