BlackRock Private Equity Partners

The PECR research team was able to estimate that BlackRock Private Equity backed 37 energy companies, a quarter of which invested in fossil fuels. BlackRock earned a C on this scorecard.

BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager, with a giant $10 trillion in assets under management investing in nearly every corner of the economy. BlackRock’s private equity platform has close to $42 billion in AUM. There have been many criticisms of the company’s corporate practices, including its investment in companies with poor human rights track records, commitment to continue supporting fossil fuel investments, and outsized political influence.

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BlackRock intends to substantially grow its infrastructure asset management business with the announced acquisition of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and its $100 billion in AUM. This acquisition would triple BlackRock’s infrastructure business to nearly $150 billion and would be the firm’s largest acquisition since 2009. The announced acquisition raised antitrust and anti-monopoly concerns from US Senator Bernie Sanders who expressed in a letter to the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission that “the asset management industry is quickly becoming a monopoly and BlackRock’s acquisition of GIP will make this problem even worse.” BlackRock’s CEO and President made clear that the GIP acquisition is designed to grow the company’s private infrastructure business substantially, leveraging BlackRock’s corporate and governmental relationships while dramatically increasing the amount of the infrastructure industry that would be under BlackRock’s control.