the times | Wednesday April 13 2022 2GM 45
Business
ZHANG CHANG/CHINA NEWS SERVICE/GETTY IMAGESBlackRock, the world’s biggest money
manager, has dismissed three senior
directors from its private equity busi-
ness after discovering their plans to
leave for a rival firm.
In an internal memo seen by Bloom-
berg News, BlackRock said the three
employees — Steve Lessar, Konnin
Tam and Veena Isaac — had been
partially responsible for managing a
$3 billion strategy in its private equity
arm’s secondaries unit. The company
learnt this week of their “co-ordinated”
plan to join the investment giant Apollo
Global Management.
The executives are now set to join the
rival firm while it looks to expand into
secondary investing as part of its efforts
to build new sources of growth.
BlackRock, based in New York, is one
of the most influential companies inBlackRock sacks executives after
rumbling their plot to jump ship
Callum Jones
US Business Correspondentglobal finance. The firm was estab-
lished more than three decades ago and
has more than $10 trillion in assets
under management. It has more than
16,000 staff and operations across
about 38 countries and its clients
include some of the world’s biggest
corporations and wealthiest individu-
als. It went public in 1999.
Edwin Conway, senior managing
director at BlackRock, and Russell
Steenberg, its global head of private
equity partners, informed staff of the
abrupt departures on Monday.
“The action we took reflects how
seriously we take our commitment to
putting the interests of our clients first
and how the actions of these individu-
als fell short of what we expect of our
employees,” the pair wrote in the
memo. “BlackRock made the decision
to terminate all three employees after
learning of their intention to depart.”
Lessar and Tam joined BlackRock in2018, according to the official corporate
biographies on the firm’s website, and
respectively served as co-heads of the
secondaries and liquidity solutions unit
within its private equity business.
Isaac joined BlackRock in January
2019, according to her LinkedIn profile,
and worked as a managing director in
the unit.
Their departures from the firm
underline the high level of competition
for top talent between leading invest-
ment groups in the United States as
they explore new streams of business.
BlackRock declined to comment
beyond the memo. Apollo did not
respond to a request for comment.
In his annual letter to shareholders
last month, Larry Fink, the co-founder,
chairman and chief executive of Black-
Rock, stressed that it would seek to
“retain and attract best-in-class diverse
talent” by allowing workers to operate
from home for part of the week,increasing the diversity of its pool of
applications for roles and regularly
reviewing the firm’s culture.
Apollo, also based in New York, was
set up in 1990 and was listed in 2011. It
has more than 2,000 employees and
reported $497.6 billion in assets under
management as of the end of last year.
Marc Rowan, co-founder of the firm,
serves as chief executive.
The group is seeking to gain a foot-
hold in the market for secondary
solutions, where investors look to buy
discounted assets from other investors
— effectively second-hand — instead
of directly from the company itself.
Volumes in the private equity second-
ary market boomed last year, breaching
$100 billion for the first time.
Shares in BlackRock closed down by
$14.22, or 1.9 per cent, at $718.97 in New
York last night, while Apollo Global
Management was down $1.36, or 2.4 per
cent, at $55.51.Mini factory
workers plan
strike action
Louisa Clarence-SmithProduction at Mini’s largest factory
in Britain could be disrupted after
warehouse workers who handle
components for the car manufacturer
voted to strike over pay.
Almost 150 workers based at the Mini
plant in Oxford are planning to walk
out on two days late this month and on
six days next month, the Unite union
said, unless their employer agreed to
raise pay to meet rising living costs.
The workers, including warehouse
staff and drivers responsible for moving
vehicles at the factory, are employed by
Rudolph & Hellmann Automotive, a
logistics firm. Unite said the company
was offering a rate of £11.33 per hour for
day shifts and £12.27 for late shifts for
warehouse workers. Union members
are demanding a day rate of £12.50 and
£13.50 for night shifts. Drivers are being
offered £13.97 for days and £15.07 for
nights, but have demanded a flat rate of
£15.50, which Unite claims is nearer the
industry norm for the role.
Unite said it disputes the company’s
claim that it is increasing wages by
10 per cent. With a 4 per cent pay rise
imposed in 2021 without consultation,
Rudolph & Hellmann’s 2022 pay offer
amounts to 6 per cent, below the real
rate of inflation which stands at 8.2 per
cent, according to the union.
Mini’s Oxford plant is the largest of
its three factories in Britain. It is where
all Mini parts are assembled to make
road-ready vehicles.
A spokeswoman for BMW, which
owns the Mini brand, said: “We have
been informed of the potential
disruption and, as discussions are still
ongoing, we cannot provide further
comment at this time.”
Rudolph & Hellmann confirmed it
had received a notification of strike
action. “We continue with our discus-
sions regarding pay and other terms,” a
spokeswoman said. It said it could also
not comment further as talks continue.
Sharon Graham, Unite’s general sec-
retary, said: “Rudolph & Hellmann, and
BMW, need to start taking account of
our members’ rocketing living costs and
put forward an offer they can accept.”J
apan’s Honda Motor
Company has set out a
$64 billion plan for a big push
into electric vehicles that
includes having 30 pure
battery-powered models by 2030
(Russell Hotten writes).
The carmaker said that it aimed
to produce two million electric
vehicles globally each year by the
end of the decade, with the first new
model launched in 2024.
There had been concern that
Japan’s carmakers were falling
behind rivals in the US and Europe,
such as Tesla and Volkswagen, in
developing electric vehicles.
Honda said it wanted to build adedicated electric vehicle
production line in the US, where it
will also procure Ultium batteries
from General Motors. Honda is
already planning to build electric
vehicle production plants in
Guangzhou and Wuhan in China.
Last week the two companies said
they would develop a series oflower-priced electric vehicles based
on a new joint platform, expanding
on plans for General Motors to
begin building two electric SUVs for
Honda, starting in 2024.
The Japanese company is also
considering a separate joint venture
company for battery production
there, aside from its General Motors
partnership. Sourcing batteries has
become a big issue for electric
vehicle makers, with competition to
secure stocks intensifying.
Christopher Richter, an analyst at
CLSA, the broker and investment
manager, said the tie-up with
General Motors was a good move.
“This puts them in good company
with a lot of other makers that have
made big battery announcements,”
he said. “Ultimately the world is
going to leave internal combustion
engines behind.”
In addition to its investment in
electric vehicles and batteries,
Honda said it would step up
spending on research and
development across the automotive
division. The company has also
been exploring hydrogen-powered
vehicles and continues to develop
driverless car software.
However, Honda and other
Japanese carmakers have long said
that even as they go electric, they
will not give up on older, hybrid
petrol-electric technology, pointing
to emerging markets where the
infrastructure to support electric
vehicles is years away.
“By no means is this the end of
hybrids and the replacement of all
hybrids with EVs,” Toshihiro Mibe,
Honda’s chief executive, said. “We
will develop our current hybrids and
use them as a weapon in our
business.”
He said the new product line-up
could include two all-electric sports
cars within the next few years,
describing one of the future models
as “specialist” and the other as “a
flagship”. The Honda NSX two-
seater sports car, which has been
through three makeovers, is due to
be discontinued later this year.
Toyota has targeted sales of
3.5 million electric vehicles by 2030
and Nissan is aiming for half its cars
to be electric by then.Honda unveiled its e:NS1 electric SUV
at the Wuhan motor show last year
and more new models will followPennon is all
Bristol fashion
Pennon Group reported yesterday that
its financial performance had remained
“resilient” as it noted that the
integration of its Bristol Water Hold-
ings acquisition was progressing well.
The Exeter-based water utility
company said it is maintaining a robust
financial and operational performance
despite a challenging macroeconomic
environment.
Pennon’s trading update before its
annual results at the end of May said
that it remains on track to deliver a solid
performance across the business in line
with management expectations for the
year ahead.
It stated that its water resources
remain in a “robust” position with
reservoir storage at 93 per cent.
The company added that the integra-
tion of Bristol Water was going well. It is
anticipated to complete over the next
24 months. Pennon identified syner-
gies of £20 million a year by 2024-25
through service improvements.
Pennon completed the £425 million
acquisition of Bristol Water in March.
Shares in the company closed up 4p,
or 0.4 per cent, at £10.56.