Who is BlackRock: Stirring up the Panama ports, the King of Wall Street shifts into Crypto Assets...

A transaction that affects the global geopolitical and financial landscape, uncovering the tip of the iceberg of the hidden power of asset giant BlackRock. This article is from an article written by Tencent Prism and is compiled, compiled and written by wublockchain. (Synopsis: BlackRock CEO investor letter full text: Bitcoin is eating away at the US dollar reserve status, tokenization will lead the capital revolution) (Background added: BlackRock CEO: asset tokenization is the biggest change in the future of finance, optimistic about DeFi but worried about the dollar) In early March, Changjiang Hutchison Industrial Co., Ltd. (00001. HK) announced that it has reached an agreement in principle to sell 80% of the assets of Hutchison Port Group and 90% of the shares of Panama Port Company, a subsidiary of Hutchison Ports, in "exclusive consultations" with a consortium led by BlackRock. According to the announcement, the deal will bring CNK $19 billion in cash. This is the world's largest port transaction in recent years, involving 43 ports and logistics supporting infrastructure in 23 countries and regions around the world, including Felixto, the largest container port in the UK, European Container Terminal in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Busan, the largest port in South Korea, and Laem Chabang in Thailand. In particular, the two major ports of Balboa and Cristoval operated by the Panama Port Company are located at both ends of the Panama Canal, guarding the key nodes of global maritime trade. Even if the deal is just on the line, because it is a lifeblood of geopolitical balance and great power games, it has caused a global earthquake far beyond the economic sphere. So, who is BlackRock? And why do you have the strength to try to swallow Li Ka-shing's port business that has been running for nearly half a century? Already "lurking" around you and me As the world's largest asset manager, BlackRock's global assets under management (AUM) stood at $11.6 trillion (about 84.18 trillion yuan) at the end of 2024. This is undoubtedly astronomical. By country, this figure is 62% of China's GDP in 2024; Germany, which ranks third in the world in terms of GDP, recorded a GDP of $4.59 trillion in 2024, less than 40% of this figure. In order to feel its magnitude more intuitively, it is worth making this assumption: even for a "gold collar" with a monthly salary of 100,000 yuan, BlackRock's assets under management are equivalent to the sum of his salary for 70 million years of continuous work. Only such an asset giant can have the strength to win Li Ka-shing's port assets. In fact, as early as 2015, there was information that Li Ka-shing was considering selling part of the port business. At that time, the market rumored that Hutchison Ports' 40% stake was asking for HK$150 billion – a figure that was very similar to the US$19 billion announced by Hutchison in March this year. Although ten years later, Li Ka-shing wants this money, and he should sell more shares. However, for transactions of such magnitude, as well as the complex political and economic games and hidden costs involved, they must not be simply measured from the superficial figures of the amount and the proportion of shares. Although some people are a little unfamiliar with the name BlackRock, the company he invests in is familiar to us: According to the latest financial report of Hong Kong stocks, BlackRock is the second largest shareholder of Changjiang Hutchison, the target of this proposed transaction, holding 4.9%, while Li Ka-shing's eldest son Li Zeju personally held only 0.08% of Changjiang Hutchison shares during the same period. BlackRock is the largest shareholder of HSBC Holdings with a 9% stake and a market capitalization of more than HK$140 billion; It is also the third largest shareholder of AIA and the fourth largest shareholder of PICC Property & Casualty. Energy infrastructure is also a focus for BlackRock, which is an important shareholder in Sinopec, China Shenhua, China General Nuclear Power, China Tower, Ninghu Expressway and Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo Expressway. Many Internet companies in China also have BlackRock behind them. However, BlackRock has recently reduced its holdings in Station B, and the latest information disclosed by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on March 19 shows that its shares in Station B have dropped from 6.71% on February 13 to 5.54% on March 14. On March 14, BlackRock increased its stake in BYD by 6.73 million shares for about HK$2.56 billion, raising its stake to 7.02%. And BlackRock's name also appears in the list of major shareholders of Fuyao Glass and Xinyi Solar, and the love and hate between these two glass companies does not affect BlackRock's bets on both sides. For the Chinese market, which is a populous country, consumption and medicine tracks are naturally indispensable. So among BlackRock's portfolio companies, we saw the names of Yum China (parent company of KFC and Pizza Hut), Mengniu Dairy, Sinopharm Holdings, and CSPC Pharmaceutical Group. In the mainland capital market, BlackRock has been "lurking" for a long time. Fourteen years ago, in 2011, BlackRock obtained a Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) license to invest in mainland capital markets. BlackRock was approved as a Qualified Domestic Limited Partner (QDLP) pilot institution in 2015 and a RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) license in 2017. So far, the channel of domestic and foreign fundraising and investment of this asset management giant has been completely opened. In 2020, with the lifting of foreign equity restrictions on fund companies, BlackRock won the first public fund license wholly controlled by foreign capital in China. Soon in 2021, BlackRock China New Vision Hybrid Securities Investment Fund A/C, the first public offering in mainland China, went public. The fund's holdings are also quite BlackRock-style. As of the end of 2024, the fund's highest exposure was a Hong Kong-listed brokerage financial institution of the Central Huijin system, China Galaxy. Not long ago, there was a rumor in the market that China Galaxy planned to merge with CICC, which is "the same door" as Huijin. The global hunt of the 11.6 trillion capital behemoth Money never sleeps, and as the world's largest asset manager, BlackRock shoulders the "heavy" task of preserving and increasing the value of funds. The huge scale of assets under management means that this capital machine must always be on the move, constantly looking for and buying assets around the world, and at the same time, it must continue to sell the assets it already holds, so that it can really make a profit and let the snowball continue to roll. Of course, this buying and selling process also determines the pricing of the asset – because investors must seriously ask themselves: BlackRock has sold, why should I continue to hold it? The $11.6 trillion capital behemoth is slowly moving at the top of the food chain, and the world is its hunting ground. Boeing, BHP Billiton, Total, Unilever, Barclays, U.S. Steel, Alcoa...... On the NYSE and NASDAQ, BlackRock is the largest shareholder of nearly 900 publicly traded companies. Some commentators believe that a super consortium like BlackRock "must live in the political cycle", but a reverse logic seems to go with the flow, such a huge amount of capital, it is impossible to "stand alone", all major events in the world, whether technological, economic, political, military, it is no longer possible to have nothing to do with BlackRock's interests. When we look at Europe, another major center of gravity of the global economy, we can also see BlackRock everywhere. The German DAX 40 index contains the 40 most important listed companies in Germany. Among them, the largest shareholder of 13 companies is BlackRock. These companies include Siemens, BASF, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Börse, Bayer and Adida. However, it is "regrettable" that BlackRock is only the second largest shareholder in Mercedes-Benz, the representative of the German automotive industry. It is worth mentioning that BlackRock is also Berkshire Hathaway's second largest shareholder,...