BlackRock Purchases the World’s Largest Infrastructure Manager

Jan. 12 (UPI) — Global asset manager BlackRock, Inc. announced Friday that it will purchase Global Infrastructure Partners, the world’s largest infrastructure manager in a cash and stock deal.

The companies issued a joint statement saying BlackRock will acquire 100 percent of GIP’s assets and business for $3 billion cash and roughly 12 million shares of Blackrock common stock.

The companies said the transaction creates “a market-leading, multi-asset class infrastructure investing platform with combined client assets under management of over $150 billion across equity, debt and solutions & strengthens deal flow and co-investment opportunities.”

Approximately 30 percent of the $3 billion cash and 12 million BlackRock stock shares will be deferred for approximately five years.

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter 2024.

To make the deal happen BlackRock will take on $3 billion of additional debt.

BlackRock has more than $50 billion of infrastructure client assets under management on its own. GIP’s management team will lead the combined infrastructure management platform.

“Infrastructure is one of the most exciting long-term investment opportunities, as a number of structural shifts reshape the global economy,” BlackRock CEO and Chairman Laurence D. Fink said in a statement. “We believe the expansion of both physical and digital infrastructure will continue to accelerate, as governments prioritize self-sufficiency and security through increased domestic industrial capacity, energy independence, and onshoring or near-shoring of critical sectors.”

He added that policymakers are just starting to implement once-in-a-generation financial incentives for new infrastructure projects and tech.

In the United States, that includes the Biden administration’s bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that invests $1 trillion for national infrastructure over 10 years.

“We share with BlackRock a culture of collaboration, client focus, investment partnership, and commitment to excellence. Investors have adopted private infrastructure investing for its ability to provide stable cashflows, less correlated returns, and a hedge against inflation,” GIP CEO and founding partner Bayo Ogunlesi said in a statement.

Ogunlesi said the combined company will provide infrastructure management solutions for both “global corporates and the public sector.”

In August 2023, BlackRock announced it will work with New Zealand’s government using a $1.2 billion renewable electricity fund to help create an emissions-free power grid in New Zealand.