jesuisjournaliste.fr : Breakingviews TV: Fink it over with John Foley, BV 2020 predictions, Reuters

black rock is one of the world's biggest asset managers we think it could also be one of the world's juiciest takeover targets I'm John FY the US editor of Reuters breaking views so big Financial companies all seem to covet what they don't have take Black Rock it's one of the world's biggest asset managers that runs $6 trillion dollar of other people's money but most of that is in things like index trackers passive funds exchange traded funds black rock is trying to move up Market because the fees on what it does at the moment are only going down so it's trying to get into things like infrastructure real estate private Equity Building those things up on its own is possible but it's a slog what better way to take a shortcut than to merge with someone who's already got that part of the market stitched up here's one suggestion Blackstone giant private Equity Group run by Steve schwarzman with more than $500 billion of assets under management and they're exactly the kind of thing that black rock is trying to build up itself now Black Rock can go into alternative Investments on its own but it's going to be a SLO putting these two companies together will be a shortcut and a match made in heaven and in a historical twist these two companies used to be one more than 25 years ago before Blackstone spun Black Rock off so putting them back together would basically be going back to the future but why stop there Goldman Sachs might also be interested in Black Rock were it to come up for grabs Goldman is another company that used to occupy the high end of finance and is now trying to move down Market launching everything from retail banking to apps that help consumers manage their money put these two companies together and you'd have that per perfect mix of high brow and low brow now there are some problems with all of this notably that Goldman Sachs and Blackstone are both the wrong size to take black rock over Blackstone in particular is currently smaller in market value than Black Rock but its Shares are growing much faster so that could turn on its head within the next year of course none of this would happen without the say so of Larry fin who runs Black Rock but then who knows in a year from now he could also be looking at his next move because when the presidential election happens in 2020 if a Democratic candidate wins they're almost certain to have someone like think on their short list to run the treasury Department is this all Pie in the Sky well in goldin's case it might be but in blackstone's case almost certainly not Steve schwarzman said in his own autobiography this year that spinning off Black Rock was one of his greatest regrets he called it a heroic mistake well perhaps in 2020 he has a chance to put that right to make black rock and offer it can't refuse and then the world's biggest asset manager will be in play