BLK BlackRock Inc

By Dawn Lim 

BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Laurence Fink earned $25.25 million last year, a 5% boost for an increasingly influential figure behind the U.S. government's response to the coronavirus crisis.

Mr. Fink's pay for his work in 2019 included a $7.75 million cash award, $16 million in stock and other incentives, as well as a base salary of $1.5 million.

By another measure that calculates executive payouts in line with Securities and Exchange Commission guidelines, Mr. Fink made $24.3 million, a decrease of 8.4% in 2019. But that figure captured earnings from 2018 and isn't as reliable of a proxy for one year.

The pay boost reflects a year where the world's largest money manager took in record investor money and hit a $7.43 trillion record for assets under management. Even so, the firm continued to face significant competition and wrestled with a raging price war.

BlackRock's bonus pool for 2019 was largely flat compared with 2018, said people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Fink, 67, has emerged as one of the most visible finance executives in the world in recent weeks, as countries have wrestled with the toll of coronavirus. He has spoken with President Trump as well as other world leaders, like Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, during this critical period for governments.

His firm, BlackRock, was tapped by the Federal Reserve to steer as much as hundreds of billions in corporate bond purchases, an unprecedented measure by the central bank to shore up the economy. It turned BlackRock into the envy of the investment world -- and a target for rivals and critics of the Fed's swift and extraordinary interventions.

BlackRock took in roughly $429 billion in new money last year, more than three times the net flows it attracted in 2018. The firm also reported higher profit and revenue, though operating margins were roughly flat.

Mr. Fink has pushed BlackRock to become a bigger presence in alternatives to stock and bond investments and a larger provider of software for Wall Street and other financial institutions. He has also pressed the firm to keep expanding its fast-growing exchange-traded funds business.

Among Mr. Fink's top lieutenants, President Rob Kapito earned $19.95 million for his work in 2019 and Chief Operating Officer Robert Goldstein earned $9.85 million in 2019.

Across the industry, asset management professionals' bonuses fell 3% in 2019, compared with 2018, according to compensation consulting firm Johnson Associates. It projects that asset management professionals will end 2020 with even more severe decreases in bonus packages at the end of this year.

Intense stress in markets is taking its toll on asset managers this year, as they prepare to report quarterly earnings in coming weeks. Many are facing intense pressure to avoid layoffs, the typical way they have cut costs. BlackRock told employees this week that it wouldn't lay off any staffers because of the impact of the new coronavirus.

Shares of BlackRock declined roughly 6% in the year to date on a total return basis, a sharp reversal from the roughly 32% total return they delivered in 2019. Total returns include price gains and dividends. The firm's stock price is outperforming many asset management rivals.

Write to Dawn Lim at dawn.lim@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 09, 2020 16:58 ET (20:58 GMT)

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