Cascade Investment

Cascade Investment, L.L.C. is an American holding company and private investment firm headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, United States. [2] It is controlled by Bill Gates, and managed by Michael Larson.[3] More than half of Gates's fortune is held in assets outside his holding of Microsoft shares.[4] 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.[5]

Cascade Investment, L.L.C.
TypePrivate
IndustryInvestments
Conglomerate
Founded1995 (1995)
FounderBill Gates
Headquarters
Kirkland, Washington
,
United States
Key people
Bill Gates (Chairman)
Michael Larson (CIO)
Total assetsUS$70 billion (2021)
OwnerBill Gates
Number of employees
100[1]
Subsidiaries
  • Front Range Investment Holdings LLC
  • Cottonwood Management LLC
  • Lakeland Sands Florida, LLC
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Larson reportedly directs Cascade's investments through Bill and Melinda Gates Investments, a firm that also manages the portfolios of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other connected entities.[6] Larson accrued over the twenty years from 1995 an 11% compound annual return,[6] and as of 2014 had 100 employees working under his direction.[1] 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
CompanyTickerSectorOwnership %
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts Private Hospitality 71.25%[6][11]
Ecolab NYSE: ECL Conglomerate 25%[12]
Canadian National Railway
Rail transport 14.2%[13]
FEMSA
Beverage and Retail [6]
Berkshire Hathaway
Conglomerate 4%[6]
Strategic Hotels & Resorts Private Hospitality 9.8%[6][14]
Republic Services NYSE: RSG Waste management 34.1%[15]
Deere & Company NYSE: DE Agricultural, construction, forestry, outdoor power and turf maintenance equipment. OEM diesel and natural gas engine manufacturer. 10.06%[16]
Bunzl LSE: BNZL Distribution and Outsourcing 6%[6]
Carpetright Private Retail 3%[6]
Diageo
Beverages 1.56%[17]
AutoNation NYSE: AN Car dealership 14%[3][18][19]
Microsoft Nasdaq: MSFT Software and Hardware conglomerate 3.6%[3]
Beyond Meat Nasdaq: BYND Food [3][20]
Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco Private Hospitality [1]
TerraPower Private Nuclear power [3]
Transformco Private Retail and real estate Debt interest[21]
Vroom Nasdaq: VRM Car dealership [22]
StorageMart Private Self-storage [23]
Signature Aviation Private Aviation Services [24]

References
  1. Bort, Julie (September 20, 2014). "Meet Bill Gates' Investment Manager". Slate. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  2. "Cascade Investment (Bill and Melinda Gates Investments (BMGI)) - Family Office, United States - SWFI".
  3. Das, Anupreeta; Karmin, Craig (September 19, 2014). "This Man's Job: Make Bill Gates Richer". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  4. Miller, Matthew (March 5, 2008). "Gates No Longer World's Richest Man". Forbes. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  5. Torres, Craig (March 7, 1993). "Convicted Felons Handle Gates Fortune". The Seattle Times. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  6. Warwick-Ching, Lucy (October 21, 2015). "Cascade Investment, Bill Gates' wealth manager". Financial Times. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  7. Das, Anupreeta; Flitter, Emily; Kulish, Nicholas (2021-05-26). "A Culture of Fear at the Firm That Manages Bill Gates's Fortune". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
  8. "Bill Gates uses farmland as an investment outlet buying up potato, carrot and onion farms". NBC News.
  9. Dolan, Kerry A. "Bill Gates Transferred Billions Of Dollars' Worth Of These Two Stocks To The Gates Foundation". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
  10. "Bill Gates Sells $940 Million of CN Rail Stock, Trimming Stake to 9%". Bloomberg.com. 2022-05-13. Retrieved 2022-12-28.
  11. "Four Seasons Hotels agrees to bid from Gates and Alwaleed". The New York Times. February 12, 2007. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  12. Stych, Ed (May 7, 2012). "Bill Gates' stake in Ecolab could get bigger". American City Business Journals. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  13. "Canadian National Railway Company | SC 13G". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. December 31, 2019. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  14. Gallun, Alby (August 10, 2015). "Could Bill Gates be the next owner of Strategic Hotels?". Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  15. "Republic Services, Inc. | DEF 14A". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. March 24, 2020. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  16. "Deere & Company | DEF 14A". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. January 8, 2021. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  17. "See how @DiageoGB scores on #water stewardship in face of #climatechange in new @Ceresnews analysis". Feeding Ourselves Thirsty. Retrieved 2021-04-13.
  18. Bort, Julie (Mar 20, 2019). "Bill Gates is $9.5 billion richer than he was a year ago, worth over $100 billion, but not just from Microsoft". Business Insider. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  19. "Cascade Investment – Portfolio Holdings". Fintel.io. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  20. Gunther, Marc (October 3, 2013). "The Bill Gates-backed company that's reinventing meat". Fortune. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  21. Zumbach, Lauren (June 4, 2018). "Sears gets more time to repay lenders, including funds tied to CEO Edward Lampert and Bill Gates". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  22. "Vroom, Inc. | S-1". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. May 18, 2020. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  23. Herald, C. R. E. (October 14, 2020). "Bill Gates' Cascade Investment, GIC buy stakes in StorageMart". CRE Herald. Retrieved April 3, 2021.
  24. Calatayud, Adria. "GIP teams up with Blackstone and Cascade to buy Signature Aviation". www.penews.com. Retrieved 2022-04-19.


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