Friday 28 January 2022

BlackRock Owns the World?

BlackRock, based in New York, is an American Multinational Investment management firm. Founded by Larry Fink and Rob Kapito in 1988, this firm has massively grown in the past 33 years. It now manages a staggering $9.5 trillion. 

This amount is not their own but is the assets that they manage on behalf of their clients. Almost 60% of the total managed assets are for institutional investors.


Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackRock


The answer to the question of why BlackRock owns the world could be explained in just one line: “their clients are their first priority”. This makes them outshine others. 

This market leader believes in trying a hand in every sector and so has shares and voting rights in many of the biggest European companies in sectors such as energy, oil and gas, and of course finance. The company holds bonds, has real estate interests, and is an auditor and advisor along with being an investor of governments and central banks.

BlackRock is not run by an individual but a team of more than 16,000 employees in over 35+ different countries. The firm believes in chasing excellence which is procured when work is done as a team with everyone contributing their best. According to a survey done, 72% of employees at the company are satisfied with their job.

The key issue here is not its size but the data/information that it owns. It could take advantage or sell to third parties the information procured. How do you stop this? A juggernaut that is bigger than most governments may not listen to legitimate concerns!

References:
1. BlackRock: The company that you never heard of, owns the world! Yukti Thakur, August 12, 2021 (https://craffic.co.in)

2. Here are 9 fascinating facts to know about BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, Rebecca Ungarino (https://www.businessinsider.com)

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