Republicans are bringing investment giant BlackRock to heel, arguing that retiree returns must come before so-called “responsible” investments. This is a record amount for a single state.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is fed up with the “woke” investments of the firm BlackRock and its CEO Larry Fink.
The state said on Thursday it had begun to divest $2 billion in funds overseen by BlackRock, calling its investment policies “woke capitalism.”
“Using our money to fund BlackRock’s social engineering project is something Florida has never endorsed,” said Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis. “It has nothing to do with maximizing returns, and it’s the opposite of what an asset manager is paid for,” he added in an interview with the New York Post.
“Florida is divesting from BlackRock because it has openly stated that it has other objectives than to produce returns,” he added, still to the New York Post.
Florida joins other Republican-led states, including Louisiana and Missouri, which have also withdrawn public funds from BlackRock’s control in response to concerns about its responsible or sustainable investment (ESG) policy.
Last August, Ron DeSantis banned pension funds, when they invest the money of state pensioners, from taking into account so-called environmental, social and governance standards.
BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager, with $10 trillion in assets under management as of January 2022. The firm operates globally with 70 offices in 30 countries and clients in 100 countries, according to Wikipedia.