Cascade Investment, L.L.C. is an American holding company and private investment firm headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, United States. [1] It is controlled by Bill Gates, and managed by Michael Larson.[2] More than half of Gates's fortune is held in assets outside his holding of Microsoft shares.[3] 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.[4]
Larson reportedly directs Cascade's investments through Bill and Melinda Gates Investments, a firm that also manages the portfolios of the Gates Foundation and other connected entities.[5] Larson accrued over the twenty years from 1995 an 11% compound annual return,[5] and as of 2014 had 100 employees working under his direction.[6] 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
External links
References
- Cascade Investment (Bill and Melinda Gates Investments (BMGI)) - Family Office, United States - SWFI^
- Anupreeta Das, Craig Karmin. This Man's Job: Make Bill Gates Richer The Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2014, retrieved April 3, 2021^
- Matthew Miller. Gates No Longer World's Richest Man Forbes, March 5, 2008, retrieved April 3, 2021^
- Craig Torres. Convicted Felons Handle Gates Fortune The Seattle Times, March 7, 1993, retrieved April 3, 2021^
- Lucy Warwick-Ching. Cascade Investment, Bill Gates' wealth manager Financial Times, October 21, 2015, retrieved April 3, 2021^
- Julie Bort. Meet Bill Gates' Investment Manager Slate, September 20, 2014, retrieved April 3, 2021^
- Anupreeta Das, Emily Flitter, Nicholas Kulish. A Culture of Fear at the Firm That Manages Bill Gates's Fortune The New York Times, 2021-05-26, retrieved 2022-12-28^
- April Glaser. Bill Gates uses farmland as an investment outlet buying up potato, carrot and onion farms NBC News, 9 June 2021^
- Kerry A. Dolan. Bill Gates Transferred Billions Of Dollars' Worth Of These Two Stocks To The Gates Foundation Forbes, retrieved 2022-12-28^
- Bill Gates Sells $940 Million of CN Rail Stock, Trimming Stake to 9% Bloomberg.com, 2022-05-13, retrieved 2022-12-28^
- Four Seasons Hotels agrees to bid from Gates and Alwaleed The New York Times, February 12, 2007, retrieved April 3, 2021^
- Ed Stych. Bill Gates' stake in Ecolab could get bigger American City Business Journals, May 7, 2012, retrieved April 3, 2021^
- Canadian National Railway Company U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, December 31, 2019, retrieved April 3, 2021^
- Alby Gallun. Could Bill Gates be the next owner of Strategic Hotels? Crain's Chicago Business, August 10, 2015, retrieved April 3, 2021^
- Republic Services, Inc. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, March 24, 2020, retrieved April 3, 2021^
- Deere & Company U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, January 8, 2021, retrieved April 3, 2021^
- See how @DiageoGB scores on #water stewardship in face of #climatechange in new @Ceresnews analysis. Feeding Ourselves Thirsty, retrieved 2021-04-13^
- Julie Bort. Bill Gates is $9.5 billion richer than he was a year ago, worth over $100 billion, but not just from Microsoft Business Insider, Mar 20, 2019, retrieved April 3, 2021^
- Cascade Investment – Portfolio Holdings Fintel.io, retrieved April 3, 2021^
- Marc Gunther. The Bill Gates-backed company that's reinventing meat Fortune, October 3, 2013, retrieved April 3, 2021^
- Lauren Zumbach. Sears gets more time to repay lenders, including funds tied to CEO Edward Lampert and Bill Gates Chicago Tribune, June 4, 2018, retrieved April 3, 2021^
- Vroom, Inc. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, May 18, 2020, retrieved April 3, 2021^
- C. R. E. Herald. Bill Gates' Cascade Investment, GIC buy stakes in StorageMart CRE Herald, October 14, 2020, retrieved April 3, 2021^
- Adria Calatayud. GIP teams up with Blackstone and Cascade to buy Signature Aviation www.penews.com, retrieved 2022-04-19^