Cascade Investment

Last updated
Cascade Investment, L.L.C.
Company type Private
Industry Investments
Conglomerate
Founded1995;29 years ago (1995)
Founder Bill Gates
Headquarters
Kirkland, Washington
,
United States
Key people
 Bill Gates (Chairman)
Michael Larson (CIO)
Total assets US$70 billion (2021)
OwnerBill Gates
Number of employees
100 [1]
Subsidiaries
  • Front Range Investment Holdings LLC
  • Cottonwood Management LLC
  • Lakeland Sands Florida, LLC

Cascade Investment, L.L.C. is an American holding company and private investment firm headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, United States. [2] It is controlled by Bill Gates, and managed by Michael Larson. [3] More than half of Gates's fortune is held in assets outside his holding of Microsoft shares. [4] Cascade is the successor company to Dominion Income Management, the former investment vehicle for Gates's holdings, which was managed by convicted felon Andrew Evans. [5]

Contents

Larson reportedly directs Cascade's investments through Bill and Melinda Gates Investments, a firm that also manages the portfolios of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other connected entities. [6] Larson accrued over the twenty years from 1995 an 11% compound annual return, [6] and as of 2014 had 100 employees working under his direction. [1] In 2021, Cascade drew attention due to allegations of toxic work environment caused by Larson. [7]

With 269,000 acres of farmland (which has been historically countercyclical to the stock market) being held through a wide network of shell companies, Cascade Investment is the largest farmland owner in the United States. [8]

Cascade has managed Gates' stake in Canadian National Railway since 2013. [9] This constituted one of the investment firm's largest holdings. [10] In 2022, the company sold $940 million worth of stocks, whittling Gates' stake down to 1.4 percent. [9]

Notable investments

CompanyTickerSectorOwnership %
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts PrivateHospitality71.25% [6] [11]
Ecolab NYSE :  ECL Conglomerate25% [12]
Canadian National Railway
Rail transport14.2% [13]
FEMSA
Beverage and Retail [6]
Berkshire Hathaway Conglomerate4% [6]
Strategic Hotels & Resorts PrivateHospitality9.8% [6] [14]
Republic Services NYSE :  RSG Waste management34.1% [15]
Deere & Company NYSE :  DE Agricultural, construction, forestry, outdoor power and turf maintenance equipment. OEM diesel and natural gas engine manufacturer.10.06% [16]
Bunzl LSE :  BNZL Distribution and Outsourcing6% [6]
Carpetright PrivateRetail3% [6]
Diageo
Beverages1.56% [17]
AutoNation NYSE :  AN Car dealership14% [3] [18] [19]
Microsoft Nasdaq :  MSFT Software and Hardware conglomerate3.6% [3]
Beyond Meat Nasdaq :  BYND Food [3] [20]
Ritz-Carlton in San FranciscoPrivateHospitality [1]
TerraPower PrivateNuclear power [3]
Transformco PrivateRetail and real estateDebt interest [21]
Vroom Nasdaq :  VRM Car dealership [22]
StorageMart PrivateSelf-storage [23]
Signature Aviation PrivateAviation Services [24]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Bort, Julie (September 20, 2014). "Meet Bill Gates' Investment Manager". Slate . Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  2. ↑ "Cascade Investment (Bill and Melinda Gates Investments (BMGI)) - Family Office, United States - SWFI".
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Das, Anupreeta; Karmin, Craig (September 19, 2014). "This Man's Job: Make Bill Gates Richer". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  4. ↑ Miller, Matthew (March 5, 2008). "Gates No Longer World's Richest Man". Forbes . Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  5. ↑ Torres, Craig (March 7, 1993). "Convicted Felons Handle Gates Fortune". The Seattle Times . Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Warwick-Ching, Lucy (October 21, 2015). "Cascade Investment, Bill Gates' wealth manager". Financial Times . Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  7. ↑ Das, Anupreeta; Flitter, Emily; Kulish, Nicholas (2021-05-26). "A Culture of Fear at the Firm That Manages Bill Gates's Fortune". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-12-28.
  8. ↑ "Bill Gates uses farmland as an investment outlet buying up potato, carrot and onion farms". NBC News .
  9. 1 2 Dolan, Kerry A. "Bill Gates Transferred Billions Of Dollars' Worth Of These Two Stocks To The Gates Foundation". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
  10. ↑ "Bill Gates Sells $940 Million of CN Rail Stock, Trimming Stake to 9%". Bloomberg.com. 2022-05-13. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
  11. ↑ "Four Seasons Hotels agrees to bid from Gates and Alwaleed". The New York Times . February 12, 2007. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  12. ↑ Stych, Ed (May 7, 2012). "Bill Gates' stake in Ecolab could get bigger". American City Business Journals . Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  13. ↑ "Canadian National Railway Company | SC 13G". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission . December 31, 2019. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  14. ↑ Gallun, Alby (August 10, 2015). "Could Bill Gates be the next owner of Strategic Hotels?". Crain's Chicago Business . Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  15. ↑ "Republic Services, Inc. | DEF 14A". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission . March 24, 2020. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  16. ↑ "Deere & Company | DEF 14A". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission . January 8, 2021. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  17. ↑ "See how @DiageoGB scores on #water stewardship in face of #climatechange in new @Ceresnews analysis". Feeding Ourselves Thirsty. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  18. ↑ Bort, Julie (Mar 20, 2019). "Bill Gates is $9.5 billion richer than he was a year ago, worth over $100 billion, but not just from Microsoft". Business Insider . Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  19. ↑ "Cascade Investment – Portfolio Holdings". Fintel.io. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  20. ↑ Gunther, Marc (October 3, 2013). "The Bill Gates-backed company that's reinventing meat". Fortune . Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  21. ↑ Zumbach, Lauren (June 4, 2018). "Sears gets more time to repay lenders, including funds tied to CEO Edward Lampert and Bill Gates". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  22. ↑ "Vroom, Inc. | S-1". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission . May 18, 2020. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  23. ↑ Herald, C. R. E. (October 14, 2020). "Bill Gates' Cascade Investment, GIC buy stakes in StorageMart". CRE Herald. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  24. ↑ Calatayud, Adria. "GIP teams up with Blackstone and Cascade to buy Signature Aviation". www.penews.com. Retrieved 2022-04-19.


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