Gardner rich investment firm

Representative Image To look at the way richer countries are spending money on the energy transition, you might think we’re within reach of bringing Climate Change under control. Investment in clean energy has only accelerated in the years since COVID-19 struck. In the second half of the last decade, it grew at a 2 percent annual rate. Since 2020, that’s risen to 12 percent a year. This year, it will hit $1.4 trillion, the International Energy Agency wrote in its annual investment report on June 22, putting green power comprehensively ahead of the roughly $1 trillion that’s being spent on fossil fuels. If you assume those trends will continue, it looks even more promising. Just continuing to inflate existing spending at current growth rates would imply that advanced economies and China spend in the region of $650 billion a year on clean power over the remainder of this decade, the IEA wrote — within sight of the $850 billion-odd that’s needed to put the world on track to … [Read more...] about The rich-poor divide on clean power is getting wider

- A + A (June 22): Malaysia’s state-owned investment firm Johor Corp could seek to raise about 1 billion ringgit ($227 million) in an initial public offering of its plantation unit, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The investment arm of the Johor State government is asking bankers for pitches for the potential listing of Kulim Malaysia Bhd, and is targeting a valuation of around US$1 billion for the unit, the people said. An IPO in Kuala Lumpur could happen as early as next year, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the process is private. The Kulim listing would come as a three-year rally in crude palm oil prices has begun to sputter, falling from its peak in March as Indonesia ramps up exports. Deliberations are ongoing and details of the IPO such as size and timing could change, the people said. Johor Corp is continuously reviewing its investments, and is committed to improving the value proposition of Kulim, said Hasnina Hafiz, … [Read more...] about Malaysia state firm Johor Corp weighs IPO for US$1 bil palm oil arm

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin There’s a lot of confusion in the marketplace regarding ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) and Sustainable, sometimes known as SRI (Sustainable, Responsible, and Impact) investing. Many people think the two terms are interchangeable – I’m here to tell you that they aren’t. Blackrock BLK , Vanguard, and other big investment houses are simply capitalizing on the growing interest in values-aligned investing. In fact, they have invested a significant amount of money in marketing ESG to have you believe that they are the same. Environment, social, and governance metrics are data points that hypothetically deliver insight into how responsible a company is. The problem is that there is no standard by which companies are judged – and the metrics are constantly changing. A recent Bloomberg article questions MSCI’s MSCI ESG ratings, which is where large firms like those mentioned above get their data. The article … [Read more...] about ESG Investing Is Not Sustainable Investing

How lucrative is the swamp? A first-of-its-kind analysis shows 77 officials who served under Obama and Biden boosted their assets by an estimated 270% from 2017 to 2021. M ost people have heard of Washington’s revolving door, which allows politicos to cash in on their government service by roving between the private and public sectors, leveraging their government connections and know-how. Distaste for the revolving door, and the potential conflicts of interest it creates, is one of the few things that can unify Republicans and Democrats. Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden both enacted rules to try to limit those interested in passing through the revolving door. Yet officials on both sides of the aisle have also taken advantage of the revolving door. A first-of-its-kind analysis, conducted by Columbia University’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation, MuckRock and Forbes , identified 151 officials who left the government in the final days of the Obama administration, … [Read more...] about Revolving-Door Riches: How Obama-Biden Officials Cashed In During The Trump Years

More than two decades after turning down a $120 million offer from Quaker Oats, Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford, the majority owners of Clif Bar, have agreed to sell the energy bar company to snack giant Mondelez for $2.9 billion. By Jemima McEvoy T wenty-two years ago Gary Erickson and his then-business partner Lisa Thomas faced a difficult choice. Quaker Oats had proposed paying $120 million for their energy bar company, Clif Bar & Co., which was doing an impressive $40 million in annual sales after roughly doubling every year since its launch in 1992. Taking the deal meant its founders could each walk away with a pre-tax $60 million and be freed of the difficulties of building and running a business. Thomas wanted to walk away, but something told Erickson to turn the offer down. It wasn’t the right time. “I was about to become a very rich man … but instead of feeling excited, I felt nauseated,” Erickson wrote in his 2004 book, Raising the Bar: Integrity and … [Read more...] about California Couple Gets Mega Rich Off Clif Bars

It's reality check time and we are opening the holiday-shortened trading week in a bear market in the S&P 500 after U.S. stocks had their worst week last week since March of 2020. The Federal Reserve hiked the federal funds rate by three quarters of a percent last week as it tries to cool inflation. I know, I said that would be "out of character" and "off script" on last week's podcast . So, you know the situation is pretty serious, and the Federal Reserve does not have inflation under control. No central bank does, for that matter. It's going to take aggressive interest rate hikes to get to what the Fed calls a normal rate environment (3.4%), which means we may very well see another 75 basis point hike at the Fed's next meeting in July. While that 3.4% may be normal, if you look at the last 50 years, it is not normal when you look at the past decade, which has been characterized by accommodative monetary policy via low interest rates and low inflation well under 2%. This is new … [Read more...] about Investing in Wine With the NBA’s Elite Players

When the government announced a vaccination programme for 12-14-year olds earlier this year, Neeta Singh (name changed), an educator at one of India’s biggest edtech unicorns, was excited as she thought she would be back in the classroom after almost two years. Singh said she was very keen to get back to her previous employer, a tutoring company, despite the lower compensation as she wanted to get out of the ‘extremely toxic’ culture at the edtech unicorn she had worked at for almost 15 months. “I am a single mother of two and I cannot stop working as both my kids are still in school. The local tuition centre I was working at had asked us to look for different jobs in March 2020, when the government announced the first lockdown,” said Singh. “Back then e-learning platforms were offering huge packages so I accepted it. I thought working from home would be better as I would be able to manage things better. But my incentives and job security were linked to the number of classes, … [Read more...] about Layoffs, restructuring, slowdown: India’s edtech firms are struggling post-pandemic

Fundamental VC, an early-stage venture capital (VC) fund has launched its maiden fund with a target corpus of $130 million, at a time when early-stage funding is gaining traction among VCs in India. The Bengaluru-based fund will be focused on sectors such as consumer internet, healthcare, insurance, financial services, software-as-a-service (SaaS), gaming, and artificial intelligence (AI), among others, the company said in a statement on June 24. Fundamental VC said it received Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI’s) approval in March. The VC claimed that it already has started deploying capital and plans to lead investments in pre-seed and seed rounds. Founded by Saswat Sundar and Abhishek Rathi, former executives at startups like OYO, Stashfin, and Velocity, Fundamental VC said it plans to invest up to $1.5 million in each startup and aims to back 30 startups, over a period of two years. Earlier, both founders have individually invested … [Read more...] about Early-stage venture capital firm Fundamental launches maiden fund worth $130 million

Sales automation software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform LeadSquared has joined the unicorn club after the Bengaluru-based company raised $153 million from WestBridge Capital as a part of its Series C funding round. The company is India's 103rd startup to be valued at $1 billion or more even as concerns mount over funding and the growing number of layoffs in the industry. "(We will) start building in APAC and EMEA, add new offerings to our product portfolio, and fund acquisitions. To support our growth, we plan to double our headcount in the next 18 months,” LeadSquared's founder and chief executive office Nilesh Patel said on June 21. He was referring to the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, the Middle East and  African countries. The company would also use the funds to invest more for growth in its existing markets—India and North America, Patel said. LeadSquared follows edtech company PhysicsWallah and online beauty products marketplace Purplle to become the third … [Read more...] about Sales automation firm LeadSquared joins unicorn club with $153 million funding from WestBridge

Housing Development Finance Corp on April 20 said it has entered into binding agreements to sell 10 percent of HDFC Capital Advisors to a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the United Arab Emirates' biggest sovereign wealth fund, for Rs 184 crore. "...This investment will help leverage ADIA’s global expertise and experience to further propel HDFC Capital towards becoming a leading investment platform for global and local investors across multiple strategies and asset classes in the real estate and technology ecosystem,” said HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh. HDFC Capital is targeting to finance development of one million affordable homes in India and is in active discussions with global investors to raise additional funds, Housing Development Finance Corp said. HDFC Capital is the investment manager to HDFC Capital Affordable Real Estate Funds one, two and three and manages an approximately $3 billion funding platform. The stake sale comes after HDFC and HDFC … [Read more...] about HDFC to sell 10% of subsidiary to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority