Wall Street Journal (September 6)
Numerous states have warned the “Big Three” asset managers (BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street) that their ESG policies appear to run counter to “the sole interest rule, a well-established legal principle. The sole interest rule requires investment fiduciaries to act to maximize financial returns, not to promote social or political objectives.”
Tags: “Big Three”, Asset managers, BlackRock, ESG, Fiduciaries, Financial returns, Investment, Maximize, Political, Social, Sole interest rule, State Street, States, U.S., Vanguard, Warned
Australian Financial Review (July 17)
“Oil has begun to drop back down this week to pre-invasion levels as traders brace for a sharp drop-off in consumption. But food price inflation remains stubbornly high.” Nevertheless, food prices remain largely off the radar. “The dramatic spikes in oil and mineral prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have distracted investors from the long-lasting and more dangerous impact of food inflation.” This has led BlackRock founder Larry Fink to sound the alarm on food inflation which also has profound geopolitical impacts.
Tags: BlackRock, Consumption, Dangerous, Distracted, Drop-off, Food, Impact, Inflation, Invasion, Investors, Larry Fink, Mineral, Oil, Pre-invasion, Russia, Spikes, Traders, Ukraine
Forbes (March 24)
In his latest letter to shareholders, BlackRock Chairman Larry Fink noted that “the war between Russia and Ukraine has heralded the end of globalization, as the conflict has upended the current world order that has been in place since the Cold War and will have lasting global economic consequences.”
Tags: BlackRock, Cold war, Conflict, Fink, Globalization, Russia, Shareholders, Ukraine, Upended, War
Institutional Investor (April 1)
“Traditional asset management firms are expected to lose around a third of their assets under management as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.” Fitch Ratings expects BlackRock to be least scathed, although it is still expected to lose over a quarter of its AUM, while AllianceBernstein is “projected to be the worst hit of the peer group,” losing up to 40.4% of its assets.
Tags: AllianceBernstein, Asset management, AUM, BlackRock, Coronavirus, Fitch Ratings, Pandemic, Traditional
Institutional Investor (January 7)
“Institutional investors representing more than $7 trillion plan to pull money from public equities amid concerns the bull market is ending, according to a client survey released Monday by BlackRock.”
Institutional Investor (January 16)
“BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has written a letter to CEOs detailing his requests for corporate stewardship as the firm moves toward shareholder activism year-round…. The letter is the latest move by an asset manager to focus more on shareholder activism and environmental, social and governance criteria in investments. For instance, BlackRock competitor Vanguard Group said in an August report that it is taking a more active approach to monitoring companies in its portfolio, while a McKinsey & Co. study published in October found that asset managers no longer consider ESG a niche strategy.”
Tags: Asset manager, BlackRock, CEOs, ESG, Fink, McKinsey, Niche strategy, Portfolio, Shareholder activism, Stewardship, Vanguard
Washington Post (June 1)
“Even as the Trump administration’s commitment to the [Paris] climate accord wavered, the Exxon vote showed that climate concerns were gaining ground in the business world.” BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street apparently cast their “shares in opposition to Exxon management.” Their success “marked an important step for groups that have been trying to force corporations to adopt greater disclosure and transparency about the financial fallout of climate change.” Ultimately, 62.3% of shares cast were against ExxonMobil management, effectively forcing “the oil giant to report on the impact of global measures designed to keep climate change to 2 degrees centigrade.”
Tags: BlackRock, Climate, Disclosure, Exxon, Fallout, Impact, Management, Opposition, Paris accord, State Street, Transparency, Trump, Vanguard
Bloomberg (February 8, 2012)
Larry Fink, the CEO of the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock Inc. (BLK), has provocative advice for investors. He’s bullish on the economic outlook and urges investors to take advantage of ultra-low equity valuations. According to Bloomberg, Fink believes “investors should have 100 percent of investments in equities because of valuations and higher returns than bonds.”
Tags: BlackRock, Bonds, Bullish, Equities, Larry Fink, Outlook, Valuations
Bloomberg (June 11)
CEO Laurence Fink of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with assets of $3.65 trillion, said the U.S. will grow more slowly (2-3% a year) than the global economy (3-5%) for most of a decade. “We will have modest growth for five to 10 years…. If we cut our deficits, I may be wrong, and they [growth figures] might be lower.”
Tags: BlackRock, Deficits, Fink, Global growth, U.S. growth
