BlackRock To Buy Aperio For $1.05 Bln In Cash

(RTTNews) - BlackRock, Inc. (BLK) Monday said it has agreed to buy Aperio from Golden Gate Capital and Aperio employees for $1.05 billion in cash.

Aperio Group is based in Sausalito, California. Aperio is a pioneer in custom index equity portfolios delivering tax optimization, targeted risk factors or ESG (environmental, social, and governance) values and shareholder engagement.

"The wealth manager's portfolio of the future will be powered by the twin engines of better after-tax performance and hyper-personalization. BlackRock and Aperio, working together, will bring unmatched capabilities to meet these objectives," said Martin Small, head of BlackRock's U.S. Wealth Advisory business. "The combination will bring institutional quality, personalized portfolios to ultra-high net worth advisors and will create one of the most compelling client opportunities in the investment management industry today.

BlackRock plans to operate Aperio as a separately branded, vertically integrated team within BlackRock's U.S. Wealth Advisory business. Aperio will retain its investment, business development, client service, and ESG-SRI processes under the leadership of Ran Leshem and Liz Michaels, who will become co-heads of the Aperio team upon joining BlackRock.

Current Aperio CEO, Patrick Geddes, will maintain his role as Aperio's Chief Tax Strategist and become a BlackRock senior advisor.

BlackRock's acquisition of Aperio will be funded from existing corporate liquidity and is anticipated to close in the first quarter of 2021.