BlackRock, the global fund management house, has been signed as the new title sponsor of the-year-end Champions tennis tournament at the Royal Albert Hall. The event, which is the finale to the worldwide Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions, will be known as The BlackRock Masters.

The sponsorship follows an agreement between Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, the asset management division of investment bank Merrill Lynch, and BlackRock to merge later this year.

The Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions features tennis greats such as John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Pat Cash, Goran Ivanisevic, Jim Courier and Marcelo Rios, with the top 10 players on the tour qualifying automatically for The BlackRock Masters in London. The tournament will take place from the 5th to 10th December at the Royal Albert Hall.

Tournament Chairman and CEO of Quintus Group, Peter Worth said:

“We are delighted to welcome BlackRock as new title sponsor of The Masters Tennis. The association with such a prestigious company will raise the profile even further of this great tournament and we are very much looking forward to the coming year and working with the BlackRock team.”

Notes to Editors:

The BlackRock Masters
The BlackRock Masters (formerly The Masters Tennis) takes place at the Royal Albert Hall from 5th-10th December 2006.

The BlackRock Masters is the final tournament on the worldwide Merrill Lynch Tour of Champions, with a field of 12 singles players competing for the $100,000 winnertakes- all prize. 10 players from the Tour will qualify automatically via ranking points collected throughout the year and 2 further players will be awarded wildcard entries by the Tournament Management. The event also features a doubles exhibition series. Box office opens 3rd June 2006.

The BlackRock Masters is a Tennis Legends Ltd event, which is jointly owned by the Quintus Group and Beddington Sports Management Ltd.
www.theblackrockmasters.com
Vicky Carling: +44 (0)20 7351 7499

Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch is one of the world’s leading wealth management, capital markets and advisory companies with offices in 36 countries and territories and total client assets of approximately $1.8 trillion. As an investment bank, it is a leading global trader and underwriter of securities and derivatives across a broad range of asset classes and serves as a strategic advisor to corporations, governments, institutions, and individuals worldwide. Through Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, the company is one of the world’s largest managers of financial assets. Firmwide, assets under management total US$581 billion as at 31st March 2006. For more information on Merrill Lynch, please visit http://www.ml.com/

BlackRock
BlackRock is one of the largest publicly traded investment management firms in the United States with approximately $463 billion of assets under management at March 31, 2006. BlackRock manages assets on behalf of institutional and individual investors worldwide through a variety of equity, fixed income, cash management and alternative investment products. In addition, BlackRock provides risk management, investment system outsourcing and financial advisory services to a growing number of institutional investors. Headquartered in New York City, the firm serves clients from offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia. BIackRock is majority owned by The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC) and by BlackRock employees. For additional information, please visit the Company’s website at http://www.blackrock.com/.