Bank of America May Trim BlackRock Stake
NEW YORK (
) --
Bank of America
(BAC) - Get Bank of America Corporation Report
is weighing a possible reduction of its 34% stake in
BlackRock
(BLK) - Get BlackRock Inc. Report
, a report says.
No talks have been held about when or how this might happen, and Bank of America still could decide to keep the 64.7 million common and preferred shares of BlackRock that it owns, the
Wall Street Journal
reports. But BlackRock executives expect Bank of America to sell down its stake, said people close to the company.
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BlackRock, the New York asset manager, has right of first refusal on any sale, the
Journal
says.
The BlackRock deliberations come amid a larger examination of what Bank of America should keep as it repositions its balance sheet, the
Journal
says. The BlackRock stake isn't considered a core asset.
The problem with a potential sale now may be a relatively smaller increase in its capital levels. Some people close to BlackRock told the
Journal
that Bank of America may have missed a chance to generate a big capital boost from a sale. At the end of the second quarter, the $9.2 billion fair-market value of the BlackRock stake was $800 million less than the value applied to the investment when it first came on Bank of America's books.
-- Written by Joseph Woelfel in New York.
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