The boss of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, will attend the new government’s flagship investment summit next month amid suggestions it is struggling to attract large numbers of high-calibre international business figures.
Sky News has learnt that Larry Fink, BlackRock’s chairman and chief executive, will attend the 14 October gathering, which will be held at a prominent central London venue.
Mr Fink, who was also present at a similar event organised by the Conservatives in 2021, will be among the most influential global bosses to attend.
Among the others who have agreed to come are Margherita della Valle, the Vodafone chief executive, Hemant Taneja, CEO of technology investor General Catalyst, and John Graham, who runs the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, one of the world’s largest pension plans, Sky News understands.
David Solomon, boss of the Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs, will also be there.
The emergence of some of those attending comes as Labour battles suggestions that it will struggle to draw the 300 industry leaders it pledged in early August.
Sources said fewer than 150 companies had confirmed their bosses’ attendance, with just over three weeks until the event takes place.
Roughly 100 ministers, metro mayors, officials and other government-connected figures are also expected to be present.
One insider insisted this weekend that “quality is more important than quality” and said the government remained on track to have 300 people at the summit.
That figure may ultimately be reached but comprising both the government and private sector delegations.
They questioned, however, why a formal numerical target had been set publicly when the summit was being staged at such short notice.
“It’s made us a hostage to fortune,” said one.
The event, which Labour vowed during the general election campaign to hold within 100 days of coming to power, is being seen as a key test of its economic credibility.
Whitehall officials are keen to announce investment deals worth tens of billions of pounds on 14 October, although whether they will hit this target is unclear.
Some corporate bosses, including the heads of Blackstone and JP Morgan, have declined the invitation, citing diary commitments.
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Those two companies are expected to send alternates to the event, with Blackstone being represented by Lionel Assant, one of its most senior private equity executives.
Until recently, the government had insisted that only CEOs would be able to attend, with their invitations not transferable, according to insiders.
Aviva, Barclays, BT Group and HSBC Holdings will be among the FTSE-100 companies represented by their CEOs.
The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, told the Financial Times this weekend that details of the government’s industrial strategy would be set out before the investment summit.
That is expected to include the appointment of a chair for its Industrial Strategy Council, although it faces going into the event without an investment minister being appointed.
The summit will also be politically delicate given that it comes just a fortnight before Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, delivers her first Budget – with higher taxes affecting many of those attending on October 14 expected to feature prominently.
The Department for Business and Trade declined to comment, while none of the companies contacted by Sky News would comment.
