NewsBite

BlackRock

August

Paradice’s Sam Theodore oversees the firm’s latest small caps strategy.

Paradice’s Sam Theodore sees riches in these uranium stocks

The former Blackrock hedge fund manager’s recent trip to Paladin’s flagship Namibia mine has made him more bullish on the controversial energy source.

  • Joanne Tran
A render of Akaysha Energy’s proposed Orana battery storage system under construction near Wellington, NSW.

Slim pickings for BlackRock’s equity partner hunt at Akaysha Energy

Deal was scuppered by the fact batteries are a fledgling sub-sector for even the most seasoned renewables dealmakers.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

July

Rob Kapito co-founded BlackRock with Larry Fink in 1988.

Top BlackRock executive benefits from unusual ‘points-style’ bonus pay

President Bob Kapito is the only executive named in BlackRock’s annual filings who benefits from a retirement plan linked to individual fund performance.

  • Brooke Masters
Federal and Queensland taxpayers will sink $1 billion into bringing a quantum computing company to Brisbane.

Expert department ‘not party’ to PsiQuantum deal

Persistent criticism of the nearly $1 billion investment in PsiQuantum was again levelled at ministers and bureaucrats this week.

  • James Hall
The battery system will be built near Wellington in NSW.

Akaysha signs $650m debt deal for giant NSW battery

The system to be built near Wellington will be one of the largest in the world. The BlackRock-owned group has also struck a supply deal with EnergyAustralia.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
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June

The future City Tattersalls Club, a rendering from 2019.

City Tattersalls Club to sell Pitt St property after BlackRock walks

Should the deal complete as expected, City Tatts will lose ownership of the sprawling property, its crown jewel built via multiple acquisitions, after a century. 

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

Nuclear to wreak ‘catastrophic damage’ on renewable energy

Clean investor groups say the Coalition’s scheme will take too long, cost too much, and is incompatible with timely and cost-efficient energy transition.

  • Elouise Fowler
 A Golden Goose store in the Mayfair district of London.

Why Permira got cold feet over Golden Goose IPO

After more than 10 months of preparation, the Italian footwear brand was seeking to raise about $966 million in a Milan listing as early as Friday. Then something went wrong.

  • Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli, Ivan Levingston and Kaye Wiggins
Elon Musk

Musk says shareholders approving his $75b pay package

It’s D-Day for the Tesla CEO as shareholders vote on his controversial pay package – with major implications for the billionaire and his company.

  • Updated
  • Trisha Thadani
Solar panels on the roof of a factory making renewable energy equipment in Jinan in China’s Shandong province.

Global investors pull $60b from ESG funds

Sustainably focused equity funds suffered major cash outflows globally in 2024 because of poor performance and scandals, the first sustained exodus.

  • Patrick Temple-West and Will Schmitt
David Gillespie of gas and electricity distributor Jemena at the ESG Summit.

ESG idealism runs into hard realities of execution

The end of cheap money to invest, the cost of living crisis, and energy price shock have dramatically changed the order of priority for customers, governments and investors.

  • The AFR View

May

The Google Cloud data centre in Germany relies on AI chips inside its servers to help provide co-piloting programs to humans.

Nuclear, data centres are in a sweet spot for investors

Analysts are scouring sharemarkets for ways to profit from the rush of money into the data centres that will support the rise of AI.

  • Tom Richardson
Supporters of the African National Congress at a rally supporting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

South African politics complicates BHP’s Anglo American discussions

As they try to seal a $75 billion deal on the same day as the South African election, the two miners remain split on the costs Pretoria will impose on any deal.

  • Peter Ker
PsiQuantum’s co-founders Jeremy O’Brien and Terry Rudolph are confident they will win bipartisan support in Australia.

PsiQuantum in talks for bipartisan support but Coalition not swayed

PsiQuantum is confident of winning over sceptical politicians by highlighting its backing from both major parties in the US, where it has defence contracts.

  • Tess Bennett

April

Woodside will hold its annual general meeting on Wednesday.

Goyder will face the music at Woodside AGM

Even if the chairman now looks certain to survive a substantial protest vote and be re-elected, it all adds up to a firm rebuff of the company’s decarbonisation plan.

  • Jennifer Hewett
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Chairman Richard Goyder’s re-election bid at Woodside Energy has been questioned, and will be put to a vote on Wednesday.

Goyder’s fight at Woodside highlights question of shareholder voice

Activist battles largely take place between big asset managers and their proxy advisers. Is it time their retail investors got more of a say in what they do?

  • Jonathan Wenig
The ASX is rallying.

ASX rallies; Top fundies revealed; Musk’s $500b crisis

Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.

Blackrock chief Larry Fink

Larry Fink, other top CEOs increase personal security

BlackRock has tripled its security spend for Larry Fink after a backlash over the company’s ESG investing stance – and it’s just one of many companies to do so.

  • Louis Ashworth and Brooke Masters
Larry Fink.

‘Unequivocal failure’: Activist fund tries to unseat Larry Fink

Bluebell Capital Partners is proposing to oust the BlackRock founder as chairman of the world’s largest asset manager.

  • Updated
  • Brooke Masters
Plutora co-founder Dalibor Siroky pictured in 2016.

How Macquarie’s $46m investment in an Aussie tech firm turned into $1

Macquarie Capital poured $46m into Plutora, but sold its stake for a dollar, and administrators have met to try to figure out what is left in its operations.

  • Paul Smith

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/company/blackrock-inc-6fua