The world’s largest asset management firm is now a major player in medical devices.
In the first of several pending moves, BlackRock Inc. (NYSE:BLK) assumed a five percent stake in several medical device firms including Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX) and Abiomed Inc. (NSDQ:ABMD), according to a clutch of regulatory filings with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission Jan 29.
BlackRock, which controls more than $3.2 trillion in assets, assumed the stake in both firms following its purchase of Barclay’s Global Investors last December.
Barclay’s had controlled more than 2 million shares of Abiomed, or about5.4 percent of the Danvers, Mass.-based company. The investment firm held almost 76 million shares of BSX stock, good for just over 5 percent of the company.
BlackRock is now the fourth-largest shareholder of the Natick-based medical devices monolith.
BlackRock also will own major stakes in several other medical device firms as all the Barclay’s stakes transfer, including 5.6 percent of C.R Bard (NYSE:BCR) and more than 9 percent of Chelmsford, Mass.-based Brooks Automation Inc. (NSDQ:BRKS).
