BlackRock is rolling out new updates to its Aladdin flagship platform, as the asset management giant is trying to take over even more of the software portfolio management market.
Aladdin, as short for Asset Management and Debt and Derivative Trading Network, started as a tool for analyzing bond portfolios in the early 1990s of financial times.
Last year, in search of “absolute portfolio vision,” 2020 BlackRock acquired private sector analysis company eFront. It offered in-depth risk analytics for all asset groups, both public and private.
Executives of Aladdin say they did so.
But the changes come as new competitors for the iconic fund management platform at BlackRock arise.
Quantitative Research Tried to Show the Data
In late 2019, quantitative research company Two Sigma unveiled the Venn data and risk-management tool. State Street built a program named Alpha, having purchased Charles River Design rival Aladdin in 2018.
According to BlackRock, Aladdin’s latest software, which debuted a little over a year after the first announcement of the eFront contract, offers consumers with complete portfolio and its management team. In addition, asset class breakdowns of their existing positions and risk exposures.
For example, a pension fund CIO who is worried about the implications of Covid-19. It might arrange their portfolio by sector. It aims to find out travel and hospitality risk, or stress test various pandemic scenarios.
Clients of Aladdin used to only get this broader focus on public equities and fixed income, rather than on private assets.
“The trends of why we eventually acquired eFront only accelerated,” Aladdin ‘s global head Sudhir Nair said in an interview. “We saw increased importance in allocations to alternatives. But, the current state of technology to support those exposures to the private market was far behind. It happened on which they were in the public markets. We felt there was an opportunity and gradually a need to put together public and private markets.”
