BlackRock says new CFO hire does not signal major M&A wave

Feb 13 (Reuters) - Money manager BlackRock Inc is hiring its longtime dealmaking banker as chief financial officer next month, but don't expect any major acquisitions as a result, President Robert Kapito said on Wednesday.

New York-based BlackRock, the world's largest money manager, said on Tuesday it was hiring Morgan Stanley banker and long-time financial advisor Gary Shedlin to succeed Ann Marie Petach as CFO next month.

"This is not that exciting," Kapito said, speaking at a Credit Suisse conference in Miami. "This does not signal that we are going into the M&A biz."

Kapito also repeated chief executive Laurence Fink's recent declarations that the huge firm, which oversees almost $4 trillion, is not planning to make any more large-scale acquisitions. BlackRock doubled in size with its 2009 acquisition of the investment unit of British bank Barclays, a deal Shedlin helped orchestrate.

Instead, the firm will concentrate on small deals to fill in gaps in its investment offerings, Kapito said.