Billionaires: Citadel founder Ken Griffin pays $8m for Blue Origin rocket ride

Ken Griffin

For those in cryptocurrency and stock markets who have been feeling some pain, the Robin Hood Foundation benefit event held last Monday offered a few hours of respite. And the chance at a real picker-upper: a rocket to space.

Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder of hedge fund Citadel, made the winning $8 million bid in absentia, but does not plan to take the flight. Instead, he is giving his seat on Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin New Shepard rocket to a New York City public school teacher, who will join another educator already scheduled to be on-board.

“I hope this moment will ignite the imagination of our students and inspire the next generation to push the boundaries of what humanity can achieve, while underscoring the extraordinary role our teachers play in the lives of our children,” said Mr Griffin, who has a net worth of $29.5 billion and is the 39th-richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Citadel's chief technology officer Umesh Subramanian made the final bid on behalf of Mr Griffin. Billionaire cryptocurrency investor Mike Novogratz also raised his hand at $4m.

The live auction, conducted by Lydia Fenet of Christie’s, was brief but it drove home the big idea of the night: those with money, power, privilege and access are in a position to lift up those with less of it.

The event brought in $126m, all for Robin Hood’s poverty-fighting initiatives in New York. A big chunk of that — $100m — will fund a new initiative to expand childcare programmes. The goal is not only to nurture children, but to provide support to working parents.

Gautam Adani

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani is seeking to boost his media investments in an ambitious expansion plan, sources said, as he diversifies his conglomerate from its shipping and coal-mining roots.

The Adani group is exploring buying stakes in some local television and print news outlets while a few media outlets have approached the conglomerate to study potential deals, the sources said.

Deliberations are preliminary and there is no certainty they will result in a transaction, they said.

A representative for the Adani group declined to comment.

Media is the latest frontier for Mr Adani, 59, in a simmering rivalry with compatriot Mukesh Ambani, 65, as the two compete to dominate India’s $2.7 trillion economy.

In February, Mr Adani dethroned Mr Ambani as Asia’s richest man.

Like Mr Ambani, who expanded from oil refining and petrochemicals into telecoms, retail, technology and media, Mr Adani is also widening his footprint by adding airports, data centres and other businesses to his empire.

Both have unveiled a combined investment of about $146bn in green energy over the next few decades.

Last month, Adani Enterprises established AMG Media Networks, an arm it said would be in the business of “publishing, advertising, broadcasting, distribution of content over different types of media networks”.

The Adani Group will focus on acquisitions to expand rapidly, rather than starting outlets from the ground up, the sources said.

While approaching prospective targets, it has offered to remain as a financial investor and refrain from interfering in the editorial decisions of the organisations. The conglomerate hired Sanjay Pugalia last year to head Adani Media Ventures as it sharpened the focus on the sector.

Scaling up the business will give Mr Adani a meaningful presence in an industry where Mr Ambani has already made his mark through his Network18 Media & Investments company.

The Adani conglomerate is interested in media assets with the right fit, no matter the size.

Mr Adani’s foray into the nation’s media space also heats up the race for a market of about 1.4 billion people, which is already crowded with domestic and global companies ranging from Sony to Netflix and a venture by James Murdoch, the billionaire son of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

The net worth of Mr Adani, a first-generation entrepreneur, is about $102bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, while Mr Ambani’s fortune is pegged at $87.7bn.

Andrew Forrest

The clean energy unit of Australia’s Fortescue Metals Group is considering building a green hydrogen plant near Washington state’s last operating coal-fired power station.

Fortescue Future Industries entered into a binding exclusivity agreement with an industrial park near TransAlta’s Centralia plant, which is scheduled to close in 2025, the Perth-based company said on Friday.

FFI said it intends to seek to employ the existing coal workforce for the proposed project.

Metals miner Fortescue and its biggest shareholder, billionaire Andrew Forrest, have announced several potential investments in an effort to become one of the world’s biggest clean energy producers over the next decade.

The world’s fourth-biggest iron ore exporter has a line-up of multibillion-dollar projects to reach that goal, ranging from a plan to supply Europe together with German energy company EON to buying Williams Advanced Engineering.

“FFI’s goal is to turn North America into a leading global green energy heartland and create thousands of green jobs now and more in the future,” Mr Forrest said.

“Repurposing existing fossil-fuel infrastructure to create green hydrogen to power the world is part of the solution to saving the planet.”

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World's top 12 youngest billionaires under 30 — in pictures

Norway’s fishing farm heir Gustav Magnar Witzoe, 28, has a net worth of $4.5 billion. Getty
Ryan Breslow, 27, dropped out of Stanford University to set up payment software company Bolt. He has a fortune of $2bn. AFP
Austin Russell, 27, the founder and chief executive of automotive sensor company Luminar Technologies, has a net worth of $1.6bn. Bloomberg
Henrique Dubugras is co-founder and co-chief executive of Brex, a FinTech that intends to overhaul the corporate credit card. He is worth $1.5bn. Bloomberg
Alexandra Andresen, 25, and her sister Katharina each inherited 42 per cent of the family-owned investment company Ferd. Photo: Dag Knudsen
Katharina Andresen, 26. She and her sister are both worth $1.3bn. Photo: Dag Knudsen
Stanley Tang is a co-founder and head of labs at restaurant delivery app DoorDash. He is worth $1.5bn. Photo: DoorDash
DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang serves as the app's head of consumer engineering and is worth $1.5bn. Getty

Lexus LX700h specs

Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor

Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm

Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm

Transmission: 10-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km

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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?

The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.

Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.

New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.

“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.

The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.

The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.

Bloomberg

GAC GS8 Specs

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Tailors and retailers miss out on back-to-school rush

Tailors and retailers across the city said it was an ominous start to what is usually a busy season for sales.
With many parents opting to continue home learning for their children, the usual rush to buy school uniforms was muted this year.
“So far we have taken about 70 to 80 orders for items like shirts and trousers,” said Vikram Attrai, manager at Stallion Bespoke Tailors in Dubai.
“Last year in the same period we had about 200 orders and lots of demand.
“We custom fit uniform pieces and use materials such as cotton, wool and cashmere.
“Depending on size, a white shirt with logo is priced at about Dh100 to Dh150 and shorts, trousers, skirts and dresses cost between Dh150 to Dh250 a piece.”

A spokesman for Threads, a uniform shop based in Times Square Centre Dubai, said customer footfall had slowed down dramatically over the past few months.

“Now parents have the option to keep children doing online learning they don’t need uniforms so it has quietened down.”

Seemar’s top six for the Dubai World Cup Carnival:

1. Reynaldothewizard
2. North America
3. Raven’s Corner
4. Hawkesbury
5. New Maharajah
6. Secret Ambition