PNC ‘Will Be Patient’ With Money From BlackRock Sale, CEO Says

(Bloomberg) -- PNC Financial Services Group Inc. isn’t rushing to use the roughly $14 billion freed up with the sale of its BlackRock Inc. stake.

“We will be patient,” Chief Executive Officer William Demchak said Tuesday at Morgan Stanley’s Virtual U.S. Financials Conference. “This hasn’t begun to play out in our economy in terms of what the impacts are and what the opportunity set will be that comes out of it.”

PNC last month sold its 22% stake in BlackRock, positioning it to seize opportunities amid the economic turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Demchak said Tuesday that Pittsburgh-based PNC will ideally use the funds for a geographical expansion focused on commercial and industrial lending and real estate.

“We expected, and still expect, there to be some fairly substantial disruption across the financial landscape, and we wanted to be able to take advantage of that from an offensive standpoint as opposed to be playing defense and hoarding capital,” Demchak said.

PNC shares are down 21% this year, slightly less than the decline in the 24-company KBW Bank Index.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.