They were following in the footsteps of West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Texas, which all passed resolutions this year requiring divestments from firms like BlackRock that boycott fossil fuels.
Louisiana Treasurer John Schroeder announced last month that his state would pull some $794million, while Missouri pulled $500 million. 'We are reasserting the authority of republican governance over corporate dominance and we are prioritizing the financial security of the people of Florida over whimsical notions of a utopian tomorrow,' he said.Ī BlackRock representative did not immediately comment.īut while it has encouraged portfolio companies to take steps like disclosing more data about their carbon emissions or to add more diverse board members, it has said its efforts are aimed at improving company performance and has resisted calls for steps like divesting from oil companies.īut with the announcement on Thursday, Florida became just the latest state to divest from the asset management giant, as it already faced over $1billion in withdrawals. 'With the resolution we passed today the tax dollars and proxy votes of the people of Florida will no longer be commandeered by Wall Street financial firms and used to implement policies through the board room that Floridians reject at the ballot box.' without considering the environmental, social and corporate governance movement.'ĭeSantis said in a statement at the time: 'Corporate power has increasingly been utilized to impose an ideological agenda on the American people through the perversion of financial investment priorities under the euphemistic banners of environmental, social and corporate governance, and diversity, inclusion and equity. The move comes just months after DeSantis passed a resolution directing Florida's fund managers to invest state funds in 'a manner that prioritizes the highest return on investments. 'Florida's Treasury Division is divesting from BlackRock because they have openly stated they've got other goals than producing returns,' Patronis continued, adding: 'There's no lack of companies who will invest on our behalf, so the Florida Treasury will be taking its business elsewhere.' In his statement on Thursday, Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis (pictured) accused BlackRock of focusing on ESG rather than higher returns for investors It will likely be a major issue in Congress once the GOP seizes control of the House of Representatives in January, even as the Biden administration begins to allow fiduciaries to invest retirement funds into investments that promote such ideals. While the move will hardly dent BlackRock's $8trillion in assets, it underscores how the backlash among many Republican politicians against ESG investing - which they see as promoting a 'woke agenda' - is gathering steam. The goal, he says, is to reallocate all of the money to other money managers by the start of 2023.
The state's Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced on Thursday that the state's Treasury, which he oversees, would remove BlackRock as a manager of about $600million in short-term investments, and have its custodian freeze another $1.43billion in long-term securities with the firm.
the largest such divestment by a state opposed to the asset manager's environmental, social and corporate governance policies Ron DeSantis has pulled a whopping $2billion worth of its assets from woke manager BlackRock, Inc.
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