Google’s New Green Campus Brings Sustainability to Silicon Valley – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– Last year, Pichai announced Google’s plan to run every office and data center on electricity from clean sources, around the clock. He set 2030 as the deadline, marking perhaps the most ambitious corporate commitment to decarbonization ever. Google calls it a moonshot.
–. Last year, Google met 67% of its data center electricity needs with renewable sources on an hourly basis, a 6% jump from the prior year.
– Although they’re huge and influential energy consumers, they’re mostly at the mercy of antiquated utilities built on fossil fuels. Google knows this. “The ultimate solution is to get the power grids to carbon-free all the time,” says Michael Terrell, Google’s director of energy. “We still don’t know the path everywhere, and that’s really challenging.”
– Bill Weihl worked at the company from 2006 to 2011 as its “green energy czar” and now runs ClimateVoice, an advocacy nonprofit. He says he believes, as do many experts, that the fastest way to decarbonize the grid is through rewriting laws, not corporate procurement.
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How American Billionaires Like Phil Knight Pass Wealth to Heirs Tax-Free — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– Nike is publicly traded and both Knight and his surviving son, Travis, play roles on the company’s board and must report their stock transactions, theirs is the rare case that can be examined in detail from public filings, exposing a process that’s usually shrouded in secrecy.
– First, Knight cycled millions of Nike shares through a series of trusts that effectively moved billions of dollars worth of stock price gains from his estate to his heirs, tax-free. Then he put most of his remaining shares into a vehicle called Swoosh LLC and let a trust controlled by his son, Travis, purchase a stake at a big discount. The chain of trusts let hundreds of millions of dollars in dividends flow to Knight’s heirs with him covering the income taxes. All this planning also ensured his family would retain control of his sneaker empire.
– If you’re interested in taxing wealth,” says Columbia law professor Michael Graetz, “the estate tax is the only mechanism the federal government now has.”
– The foundation of Knight’s strategy is the grantor-retained annuity trust or GRAT. His first step was to set up nine GRATs, which successfully transferred Nike shares now worth $6.1 billion to heirs tax-free from 2009 to 2016.
– After routing a fortune through GRATs, Knight put much of his remaining Nike shares into Swoosh LLC, which exploits a loophole President Barack Obama tried to close in his final days in office. Called the minority valuation discount, it takes advantage of rules allowing taxpayers to take discounts on assets that are harder to sell.
– What Knight did: Take publicly traded stock such as Nike shares and put it in an LLC, then divide that up between yourself and your heirs in a way that qualifies for a discount, minimizing your own tax bill while passing more assets onto heirs.
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Abu Dhabi Fund Mubadala Capital Buys Major Taco Bell Franchisee – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– Mubadala Capital, the fund’s asset management arm, bought K-Mac Holdings Corp. from Lee Equity Partners Opportunities Fund, according to a statement on Thursday. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. K-Mac operates some 300 fast-food Taco Bell outlets that are primarily located in the country’s Midwest and South.
– The deal reflects Mubadala Capital’s foray into the food and beverage sector, where it invested about $1.8 billion in the past seven years alone.
– It also underlines the buyout division’s U.S. focus, a destination for about 80% of its capital, said Adib Martin Mattar, who heads private equity at Mubadala Capital.
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UAE- Iraq to sign agreement to nourish and secure the trade ties – The Law Reporters — thelawreporters.com
Highlights:
– The pact, signed by the UAE Ministry of Finance and Iraq’s National Investment Commission, will boost foreign investment in both countries by providing a suitable investment environment and secure a balance between rights and obligations between investors and the host country, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
– Earlier this month, UAE energy company Masdar signed a deal with Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity and National Investment Commission to build power stations in five locations across Iraq.
– The pact also protects both countries’ investments from all non-commercial risks, including nationalisation, confiscation, judicial seizures and freezing.
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EXPERIENCE LIVING IN PIXEL
Pixel is the first mixed-use residential community at Makers District. Pixel offers its residents & visitors a unique space to enrich, collaborate & engage.
Designed as human-scale, the 7 mixed-use residential towers surrounded by quiet pocket gardens have been strategically arranged around a vibrant pedestrianized plaza.
Learn more.
UAE rises to fourth spot in HSBC’s Top 10 countries to live and work | Business – Gulf News
Highlights:
– The UAE climbed 10 places to be ranked fourth best country in the world to live and work, according to HSBC’s 14th annual Expat Explorer study, which tracks the sentiments of over 20,000 people who live and work abroad.
– Most expats in the UAE (86 per cent) say their overall quality of life is better than their home country, and six out of every 10 intend to stay longer for that reason.
Abu Dhabi’s ADDED unveils golden list project of industrial products – GCC Business News — www.gccbusinessnews.com
Highlights:
– This project is part of the Abu Dhabi Local Content Program (ADLC) established by the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) to encourage firms and institutions with the In-Country Value (ICV) Certification to purchase products from the golden list of the projects and bids offered by the government.
– The IDB has included 231 local products produced by 62 factories in Abu Dhabi as the initial list of the initiative.
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