Adebayo Ogulensi - The Making of a Billion Dollar Empire
"The financial returns are always a welcome by-product of our efforts to change the world."
Adebayo Ogulensi's career and accomplishments are an inspiration for those who dare to dream big and work persistently to achieve their goals.
He was until recently known as the man who owned Gatwick Airport - Britain’s second busiest airport after Heathrow Airport.
From now on and probably for posteriority - unless his ambitious entrepreneurial spirit still has other unknown business feats in the making - he’ll be known as the man who sold his company for $12.5 billion to BlackRock.
That's $3 billion in cash and the remaining $9.5 billion in BlackRock stock.
How can a person from humble beginnings achieve such a remarkable business feat?
Is it hard work and intelligence? Is it luck? Or is it a cocktail of all these things?
Who is Adebayo Ogulensi and why should you study him?
Let’s delve in.
I wrote Reginald Lewis - The Making of a Billion Dollar Empire four years ago. This was an homage to Reginald Lewis, one of my favourite business minds of all times and a celebration of one of the biggest business deals of the 20th century - the almost $1 billion purchase of Beatrice International Foods in 1987.
Four years later, I’m back to pay homage and celebrate an even bigger deal - 12x bigger.
Adebayo Ogulensi was born in Nigeria on the 20th of December 1953.
He was born in modest beginnings but within a professional family. His father Theophilus Ogulensi, was a doctor and the first Nigerian professor of medicine at the University of Ibadan.
After he completed his secondary education in Nigeria, he moved to the UK to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University where he graduated with a first-class degree.
After Oxford University he travelled to the US to Harvard University where in 1979 he simultaneously obtained a J.D. at Harvard Law School and an MBA at Harvard Business School.
Following Harvard University he worked as a law clerk for Thurgood Marshall, a prominent civil rights lawyer and jurist.
Adebayo started his career in finance in 1983 at the investment bank First Boston as an advisor on a Nigerian gas project.
Between 2004 and 2006 he was Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Client Officer of Credit Suisse.
In May 2006, Adebayo founded the private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) with the thesis to invest worldwide in infrastructure assets in the energy, transport, water and waste industry sectors.
The first fund raised $5.6 billion with General Electric and Credit Suisse being the anchor investors.
Just five months later, in October of 2006, GIP bought London City Airport for an undisclosed amount.
GIP would eventually sell London City Airport for $2.5 billion in February 2016, which was a significant return on the 10-year investment according to people familiar with the transaction.
In October 2009 GIP bought Gatwick Airport - the UK's second busiest airport - for $2 billion. This deal led Gatwick to become the first major airport in the world to be entirely privatised.
This was followed by the acquisition of another airport, Edinburgh Airport for $1 billion in 2012.
These significant transactions cemented Adebayo's position in the industry as an influential global figure in banking and infrastructure investing.
In 2023 Global Infrastructure Partners had almost $100 billion of assets under management and the firm was sold to BlackRock for $12.5 billion in January of 2024.
Adebayo's journey to success from West Africa to Wall Street to becoming one of the leading financiers in the world is inspiring and a testament to his hard work and relentless pursuit of excellence.