25 Mar Funds punish BlackRock over ESG by pulling #13bn
Nearly two eyars into a Republican campaign in the US to punish BlackRock for insisting that climate change carries financial risk, red-state investment funds have pulled about $13.3bn from the world’s largest asset manager.
That figure is roughly one-tenth of 1 percent of BlackRock $10tn in assets under management, and some Republican state pension funds still have well over $20bn parked with the money manager. Overall, BlackRock reported $1389bn in net inflows in the Americas last year.
The $13.3bn in withdrawals include last week’s announcement by the Texas Permanent School Fund that it would pull $8.5bn at the end of April, the largest removal to date by Republican-run pension funds.
BlackRock has been trying to respond to the campaign against environmental, social and governance factors in different ways. In Washington it added a sednior lobbyist with Republican ties. LAst mongth, the company co-hosted a power gird investment summit in Houston with Dan Patrick, Texas’s lietenant-governor.
Conservative attacks over the climate change issues have coincided with enw caution by BlackRock and other asset managers over participating in industry alliances that seek to tacke climate change. BlackRock has scaled back its commitment to Climate Action 100+, while State Street, JPMorgan Asset Management, Pimco and Invesco have withdrawn entirely.
But BlackRock hit back hard after the Texas fund made its announcement.
The outflows started in 2022 after West Virginia state tresurer Riley Moore included BlackRock on the nation’s first list of financial firms deemed to be boycotting fossil fuel companies. Texas, Florida, Missouri and other GOP-led states followed suit with anti-ESG initiatives and divestments
No Comments