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Access Industries

Access Industries, Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryConglomerate
Founded1986; 38 years ago (1986)
FounderLen Blavatnik
Headquarters
New York City, United States
London, England
Key people
Len Blavatnik
Products
OwnerLen Blavatnik
Subsidiaries
Websitewww.accessindustries.com Edit this at Wikidata

Access Industries, Inc. is a United States–based[1] privately held multinational investment company which was founded in 1986 by businessman Leonard "Len" Blavatnik. Access Industries' focus is in seven sectors:[2] biotechnology, entertainment, external funds, global media, strategic equity, technology ventures, and real estate. The group invests in the United States, Europe,[3] Israel,[4] and Latin America.[3] It is headquartered in New York, with offices in London and Mill Valley, California.[5]

History

The first logo used from 1986 to 2023

Len Blavatnik founded Access Industries in 1986 as an investment company.[6] He attended Harvard Business School while running the company on the side,[3] graduating with an MBA in 1989. Among its early investments, Access Industries helped form the large aluminum producer SUAL in 1996, which later became part of UC RUSAL. In 1997, Access acquired a 40% stake in the Russian oil company TNK.[7] Half of TNK was sold to BP to form TNK-BP in 2003,[3] in what was the largest-ever foreign investment in a Russian company.[8] In 2013, Rosneft acquired TNK-BP for $55 billion,[9] with Access Industries selling its stake and Blavatnik collecting US$7 billion for his share of the oil venture.[7]

Access Industries purchased a large stake in the fashion label Tory Burch in 2004.[10] In 2005, Access acquired Basell Polyolefins which, after Basell's acquisiton of Lyondell in 2007, became LyondellBasell Industries. The transaction was described by Forbes as "the greatest private equity deal of all time."[11] LyondellBasell Industries was the third largest chemical manufacturer in the US as of 2023.[12] In 2006, Access Industries took an estimated 70% stake in Top Up TV, a pay TV service in the United Kingdom[13] which sold its subscriber business to Sky in 2013.[14] In 2007, Access Industries purchased a majority stake in the sports media company Perform Group.[13] Also that year, Access became an owner in Acision, a software company focused on messaging systems.[15] Acision was acquired by Comverse in 2015.[16] As of 2010, Access retained ownership in companies such as Icon Film Distribution UK,[13] Perform Group, Top Up TV, Amedia, RGE Group, and Warner Music Group (WMG).[17] On July 20, 2011,[18] Access acquired Warner Music Group[10] for US$3.3 billion.[19] WMG listed on the Nasdaq in 2020.[20]

In May 2015, Access Industries launched Access Entertainment, a division headed up by former BBC Television boss Danny Cohen which specialises in investing in the entertainment media sector.[21] After investing in Facebook before its IPO, Access exited its Facebook holdings in late 2015.[22] Since 2016, Access has been the majority owner of online sport-streaming service DAZN,[23] and Deezer, the French music streaming service.[24] In 2018, Access, alongside a consortium of investors, acquired Calpine Corporation for $5.6 billion.[25] In 2018, Access bought the Theatre Royal Haymarket, the third oldest theatre in Britain.[26] In the second half of 2022, Access sold its stake in UC Rusal, thereby divesting of its last major asset in Russia.[27]

As of 2024, Access Industries continued to have stakes in companies including Warner Music Group, LyondellBasell, DAZN,[28] Calpine Corporation,[29] A24,[30] Deezer,[31] and Spotter.[30]

Holdings

Natural resources and chemicals

Among Access Industries' current holdings are businesses[5] in oil,[32] petrochemicals,[33] power generation,[34] aluminum[7] and biotechnology.[35] Access helped form the large aluminum producer SUAL 1996 with a combination of mergers and acquisitions.[7] In 2007, SUAL merged with RUSAL and the alumina business of Glencore International AG[36] to form UC RUSAL.[7] RUSAL raised $2.24 billion in a 2010 IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange,[37] and in 2017 it was the world's largest aluminum producer.[7] Access Industries is no longer a shareholder in UC Rusal, having fully divested of its shares in the company in the second half of 2022. This represented the last of its major assets in Russia.[27]

In 2005 Access acquired Basell Polyolefins, a Dutch company[33] specializing in polyolefins.[9] On December 20, 2007, Basell acquired the commodity chemicals company Lyondell[33] for approximately $20 billion.[9][33] The resulting company, LyondellBasell Industries,[9] was impacted by the 2008 financial crisis,[9][38] and in 2009, the US operations of LyondellBasell Industries filed for bankruptcy.[38] With financing in part from Access Industries,[7][39] in 2010,[39] LyondellBasell emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a significantly improved financial position. With a value of $15 billion,[9] it was subsequently ranked as the world's third-largest chemical company based on net sales.[9][38] Access Industries repurchased a large stake in the company in 2013.[9] As of 2017, Access owned approximately 18% of LyondellBasell.[40]

Since 2013, Access Industries has owned Clal Industries Ltd. (CII), an Israeli industrial investment group.[4][35] Among CII's main investments are Nesher Israel Cement Enterprises, Hadera Paper, Golf & Co., Clal Biotechnology,[35] and the logistics group Taavura.[41] Also since 2013, Access has owned a significant interest in EP Energy, a North American oil and natural gas producer with a portfolio of fields in the United States and Brazil.[32] On August 18, 2017, Access Industries and a consortium of investors agreed to acquire the energy company Calpine Corporation for $5.6 billion.[34]

Media and telecommunications

Access Industries previously held stakes in a number of companies in the media and telecommunications industries[5] including Ice (Norway),[42] RGE Group (Israel), Channel 10 (Israel),[4] Noga Communications and the Sports Channel (Israel).[43] Access previously owned a majority[44] stake in Amedia, a large Russian film and TV studio[45] known for shows such as Poor Nastya. Amedia gained exclusive rights to premiere HBO content in Russia in July 2017.[46] More recently, the company has invested in major media companies including Warner Music Group and DAZN.[30] In 2021, Reshet 13, an Israeli free-to-air television channel operated by Reshet Media, received investment from a group of investors that included Access Industries.[47]

Access invested in Warner Music Group (WMG) in 2004 with various co-investors.[48] After a partial sale of WMG was completed through an IPO on the NYSE in May 2005,[49] Access continued as a significant shareholder with a 2 percent stake prior to 2011.[citation needed] Access acquired WMG[10] for US$3.3 billion, including $320 million in cash and the assumption of $2 billion of WMG debt.[19]

Access Industries owns AI Film[10][17] in London, a film finance and executive production company established in 2013.[50] Since November 2014, Access Industries has owned a majority stake in DAZN Group Limited, a sports media company[51] which Access formed in 2007[52] by merging Inform and Premium TV.[53] Perform Group owns the sports website Sporting News[54] and launched the sports streaming video service DAZN in 2016.[23] As of 2019, Access held over 85% of the group.[54]

In May 2015, Access Entertainment was established with the hiring of its president, Danny Cohen, BBC's former director of television.[21] They took a 25% stake in the Bad Wolf international TV firm, and have a financing venture for drama programming with BBC Worldwide/Lookout Point and a development slate deal with House Productions.[55] In April 2017, Access Entertainment purchased James Packer's ownership share of RatPac Entertainment, which includes the joint venture, RatPac-Dune Entertainment.[56] In December 2021, Access Entertainment sold their stake in Bad Wolf to Sony Pictures Television.[57]

Access Industries has financed several A24 productions, including the 2023 film The Zone of Interest, which was executive-produced by Len Blavatnik and Danny Cohen of Access Industries.[58][59] The film won the awards for Best International Feature[60] and Best Sound at the 96th Academy Awards.[61]

Technology

In 2015, Access Industries launched Access Technology Ventures, a venture and growth technology investment arm focused on pre-IPO "unicorns".[22] As of 2017, it had investments in companies including Snapchat, Square, Yelp, Alibaba, Rocket Internet,[22] Deezer,[62] Gett,[63] Spotify,[22][23] Zalando, and DigitalOcean. In August 2017, Access Technology Ventures led a $300 million round of funding for the smartphone maker Essential Products, investing $100 million in the company.[64] Access Industries formed First Access Entertainment in October 2015, which focuses on talent development and representation in music, entertainment, and fashion.[65] Access Industries invested $137 million into Opendoor.[66]

Real estate

Access owns a portfolio of hotels and other commercial and residential properties in the United States, Europe, South America, and the Caribbean, including:[5][67]

Political activities

Access Industries has made a variety of contributions to political candidates in local, state and national elections in the United States.[74][75] In 2015, the company donated $1.8 million to Super PACs supporting Republican presidential candidates Scott Walker and Lindsey Graham.[75]

References

  1. ^ "Bloomberg Billionaires Index". Bloomberg.com. July 15, 2024. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  2. ^ "How the 'Madonna' of Billionaires Is Playing His Fourth Act". Bloomberg.com. August 13, 2021. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d Yenikeyeff, Shamil (November 23, 2011), BP, Russian billionaires, and the Kremlin: a Power Triangle that never was (PDF), Oxford Energy Comment, retrieved December 15, 2017
  4. ^ a b c Negotiations Underway to Sell Control of Channel 10 to Jewish Billionaire Len Blavatnik, Haaretz, November 13, 2013, retrieved December 17, 2017
  5. ^ a b c d Company Overview of Access Industries, Inc, Bloomberg, retrieved December 16, 2017
  6. ^ "About Us". Access Industries. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Len Blavatnik, Bloomberg, retrieved December 15, 2017
  8. ^ "Battle for TNK-BP turns into all-out war", The Guardian, July 26, 2008, retrieved December 15, 2017
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  12. ^ Tullo, Alexander H. (May 7, 2023). "C&EN's top 50 US chemical producers for 2023". C&EN.
  13. ^ a b c "Property and industrial mogul Len Blavatnik puts his money in music", The Guardian, June 13, 2011, retrieved December 15, 2017
  14. ^ Top Up Tv, Top Up TV, June 2015, archived from the original on December 17, 2017, retrieved December 15, 2017
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  17. ^ a b UPDATE: Weinstein Co Making Film Deal With Len Blavatnik/Stewart Till's Icon UK, Deadline Hollywood, October 11, 2010, retrieved December 16, 2017
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  19. ^ a b Smith, Ethan, "Deal Values Warner Music at $3.3 Billion", The Wall Street Journal, May 6, 2011, 12:39 P.M. EDT. Retrieved May 6, 2011.
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  28. ^ "Bloomberg Billionaires Index-Len Blavatnik". Bloomberg. November 6, 2024.
  29. ^ Chediak, Mark (August 18, 2017). "Energy Capital Investors to Buy Calpine for $5.6 Billion". Bloomberg.
  30. ^ a b c Thomas, Daniel (November 19, 2023). "Leonard Blavatnik's entertainment empire plans media acquisition spree". Financial Times.
  31. ^ Khalaf, Roula (January 20, 2016). "Deezer secures €100m from Access Industries and Orange". Financial Times.
  32. ^ a b Apollo's EP Energy files for IPO a year after buyout, Reuters, September 4, 2013, retrieved December 17, 2017
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  59. ^ Scorziello, Sophia (October 17, 2023). "'The Zone of Interest' Trailer: A24 Unveils Brutal, Gut-Wrenching Holocaust Drama". Variety.
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  61. ^ Smith, Jeremy (March 11, 2024). "The Actual Best Movie Sound Of 2024 Won The Oscar (Not The Loudest)". Slashfilm.
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Quelle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Access_Industries