Activist investor Bluebell Capital Partners is agitating for changes at investment giant BlackRock including the removal of long-serving CEO Larry Fink, due to the firm’s inconsistent focus on environmental, social and corporate governance issues, according to a report by Reuters.
Activist investor Bluebell Capital Partners is agitating for changes at investment giant BlackRock including the removal of long-serving CEO Larry Fink, due to the firm’s inconsistent focus on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues, according to a report by Reuters.
London-based Bluebell, with roughly $250 million in assets, says the world’s biggest asset manager with over $8 trillion in assets, and Fink have “alienated clients and attracted an undesired level of negative publicity” with the firm’s ESG strategy.
Bluebell’s criticism is the opposite charges made recently by some US lawmakers and state officials who have accused BlackRock for putting sustainability goals ahead of returns. Bluebell’s stance is that needs to do more to meet its ESG goals and distance itself from investments in fossil fuel, including coal.
Bluebell partners Giuseppe Bivona and Marco Taricco have written to informing him that they would like to see someone take the reins at BlackRock, and for the company to “initiate a strategic review of (its) stance on ESG”.
The report cites a n unnamed source as confirming that Bluebell owns 0.01% of BlackRock, which has a market capitalisation of $106.7 billion.
