BlackRock Russia exposure down $17 billion since February, company data shows

By Ross Kerber

(Reuters) - BlackRock Inc's total client exposure to Russia has declined to less than $1 billion from $18 billion a month ago, before Moscow's invasion of Ukraine led to Western sanctions and the closure of the Russian stock market, according to figures supplied by the asset manager on Friday.

A spokesman for the New York asset manager said via e-mail that the impact on clients would "depend on their initial asset allocation and the timing of their allocations to or away from this market during the period".

Morningstar data through Feb. 25 had shown BlackRock had around $5 billion in exposure to Russia, among many large U.S. asset managers with investments there.

BlackRock last week said it had suspended the purchase of all Russian securities and given the figure that Russian securities accounted for less than 0.01% of its $10 trillion in assets. Most of BlackRock's remaining exposure is through index strategies.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink on Wednesday said moves by Western companies to break commercial and financial ties means "Russia has been essentially cut off from global capital markets".

"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," the spokesman said via e-mail on Friday.

(Reporting by Ross Kerber; editing by Diane Craft and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

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