BlackRock Inc. on Wednesday said its first quarter income soared to $70.9 million from $46.5 million in the same period last year.

The New York-based firm, which is poised to become one of the world's ten largest asset managers when its merger with Merrill Lynch's asset management arm closes in the fall, said revenues in the first three months of the year reached $395.7 million, representing a 58-percent rise from a year ago.

Assets under management rose by $10.4 billion in the first quarter and by $71.7 billion year-over-year to $463.1 billion. Net inflows in long-dated products totaled $7.4 billion during the first quarter while net new business for the twelve months ended March 31 reached $57.8 billion.

"Investment performance and new business momentum remained strong throughout the quarter, and the pipeline of unfunded wins and searches in process is robust," said Laurence D. Fink, chairman and chief executive of BlackRock, in a statement. "Our first quarter results are particularly significant given that we are in the midst of planning our integration with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers."

Fink said the combined assets of the two firms stood at $1.03 trillion as of end-March, up from $992 billion at the close of 2005.  

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