BlackRock US bond ETFs hit by large outflows as sector booms

BlackRock US bond ETFs hit by large outflows as sector booms

BlackRock has been hit by large outflows from some of its best-known US fixed income exchange traded funds this year, even as the sector has posted near-record net inflows of $161bn since the turn of the year.

The world’s largest asset manager registered year-to-date net outflows of between 22 and 25 per cent of assets from its iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD), iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) and iShares Short Treasury Bond ETF (SHV), according to data from FactSet.

All three ETFs have witnessed greater outflows than any other US bond ETFs this year, a total of $23.8bn. Largely as a result, the combined assets of the funds have tumbled from $98.6bn to $73.3bn, the FactSet figures show. Another BlackRock ETF, iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT), has seen the fifth-largest outflows as its assets have slipped from $18.9bn to $15.6bn.

“We are on track for potentially another record breaking year, breaking 2020’s net inflows record, but the heavyweight products from BlackRock have not been the driver,” said Todd Rosenbluth, head of ETF and mutual fund research at CFRA Research.

The overall US fixed income ETF market remains in rude health. The year-to-date inflows of