The largest investment company in the world has been battered by more than £13billion in Russia-related losses.
Blackrock said it was forced to mark down the value of its clients’ Russian holdings after sanctions and shuttered markets made them unsellable.
The New York-based group’s customers held Russian assets valued at more than £13.9billion at the end of January, before Russia invaded Ukraine, the Financial Times reported.
Battered: Blackrock said it was forced to mark down the value of its clients’ Russian holdings after sanctions and shuttered markets made them unsellable
But Blackrock suspended all purchases of Russian assets on February 28.
The value of those it does hold has tumbled to just £760m.
The losses for Blackrock and its clients show the havoc being wreaked on Russia’s economy by Vladimir Putin’s war and the resulting sanctions imposed by the West.
The US, the EU and the UK have penalised Russian companies, oligarchs and its central bank.
The rouble has plunged more than 35 per cent against the dollar since the start of the year.
Most of Britain’s asset managers have said their exposure to Russia is minimal. But their international peers have taken a bigger knock.
Blackrock’s chief executive Larry Fink said in a LinkedIn post that the firm was embroiled in ‘a highly complex and fluid situation’.
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