Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, BlackRock Inc was heavily exposed to the Russian market. Since the invasion of Ukraine, BlackRock has been knocked by a $17 billion loss from Russian Securities. Clients initially held held 18.2 billion in Russian securities at the end of January, and now its valued at around $1 billion as of February 28th when Russian markets were frozen. However, BlackRock is not the only company that has been heavily exposed — others such as Capital Group, and Vanguard have also reported large exposures to the Russian market. With increasing sanctions on Russia worldwide and heightening tension between Moscow and Ukraine investors are becoming increasingly cautious of the exposure to Russian Securities.
BLACKROCK CEASES PURCHASES OF RUSSIAN SECURITIES
Not surprisingly BlackRock has recently halted purchases of Russian securities as of February 28th. They’ve indicated that Russian securities currently account for under 0.01% of its 10 trillion dollars worth of assets. Just a month ago, Russian Securities accounted for 0.18% of its 10 trillion. CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink, posted on LinkedIn,
“This has been a highly complex and fluid situation, and BlackRock will continue actively consulting with regulators, index providers and other market participants to help ensure our clients can exit their positions in Russian securities, whenever and wherever regulatory and market conditions allow.”
BlackRock CEO also mentions that while they do not have offices in Ukraine or Russia, they are continuing to provide support to colleagues and their families in any way that they can.
The company reassures the public with noting that their clients exposure to Russian assets is primarily held up by Index Funds, held across a number of portfolios and they have since halted all Russian Security purchases.