DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

It said 80% of its close to $8 trillion in assets are in its index funds, which primarily attract retail investors. Vanguard's biggest competitors, BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) and State Street Corp's (STT.N) asset-management arm, rely more on institutional investors including pension funds and foundations. Many retail investors are also interested in matters like climate change, but prioritize them less in building retirement portfolios, said Rosenbluth and other industry analysts. A FINRA Investor Education Foundation study of retail investors last March found only 9% of respondents held ESG investments. A big factor behind this gap is retail investors' lack of familiarity or knowledge about ESG products, the study found.

Focusing on environmental, social or governance-related issues, ESG in industry parlance, could hit returns to investors, critics said. Other states followed, with Texas accusing BlackRock and banks including Bank of America (BAC.N) of 'boycotting' fossil fuel companies in the transition to a greener economy. WHY IT MATTERSThe criticism comes at a critical time for global climate efforts. A landmark U.N. report earlier this year said time was running out to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050. With a number of investigations into finance-linked ESG activities still in train across various states, the prospect of a let-up in pressure in 2023 is slim.

Exxon has yet to set any 2030 Scope 3 target. Shell said it believed its targets are aligned with the U.N. climate targets. We remain committed to constructive engagement with our investors," a Shell spokesperson said in a statement. The group of investors co-filing the resolutions includes Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management, Degroof Petercam Asset Management and Achmea Asset Management. Exxon and Chevron have in the past successfully blocked attempts to file climate resolutions with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

☆ Financial executives and Texas Republicans spar over climate actions
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Ross Kerber | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 15 (Reuters) - Financial executives and Texas state senators clashed over company concerns for climate change at a hearing on Thursday, a rare in-person confrontation as Republicans ramp up attacks on the use of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in investing. Texas Republicans at the hearing, which was webcast, questioned whether the participation of BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) and State Street Corp (STT.N) in industry efforts to cut emissions put too much pressure on portfolio companies. Even as they take heat from energy-producing U.S. states, asset managers have faced pressure from climate activists and Democrats to take more environmental action. With some $8 trillion under management, BlackRock has been singled out by Texas for alleged over-pressuring of its important energy sector. A number of State Street funds were also designated.

☆ BlackRock executive and Texas Republicans spar over climate actions
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Ross Kerber | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 15 (Reuters) - A BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) executive and Texas state senators sparred over the firm's membership in an investment group aiming to limit climate change at a hearing on Thursday. Republicans at the hearing, which was webcast, questioned if BlackRock's membership in the Climate Action 100+ committed it to putting too much pressure on portfolio companies to take steps to reduce emissions. BlackRock Senior Managing Director Dalia Blass said the firm had maintained its independence within the group. “We have one bias, and that's to get the best risk-adjusted returns for our clients," Blass said. Reporting by Ross Kerber Editing by Frances KerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/2] Claudine Gay, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, speaks during the 368th Commencement Exercises at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., May 30, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File PhotoBOSTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Harvard University on Thursday named Claudine Gay, the school's dean of Faculty Arts and Sciences, as its 30th president, the first Black person and only the second woman to hold the job. Gay, the daughter of Haitian immigrants who joined Harvard as a professor in 2006, succeeds Lawrence Bacow as president of the prestigious, nearly 400-year-old Ivy League university. Gay, 52, will step into the job in Cambridge, Massachusetts as the university faces challenges to its admissions policies. Harvard argues that eliminating race as a consideration would hamper its efforts to create a more diverse student body.

☆ North Carolina treasurer wants BlackRock CEO to go, but keeps assets at firm
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Ross Kerber | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Dec 9 (Reuters) - North Carolina's state treasurer on Friday called for BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) Chief Executive Laurence Fink to resign or be removed from the top asset management firm, citing its focus on sustainable investing, but said public assets will stay with the firm. A division of Folwell's office, the North Carolina Retirement Systems (NCRS), has about $14 billion invested through BlackRock. A focus on ESG is not a focus on returns," the statement said. Meanwhile, Democratic officials and investors want BlackRock and other companies to come to terms with issues like climate change or workforce diversity. Earlier this week, small activist hedge fund Bluebell Capital Partners also sought Fink's departure over the company's ESG efforts.

The effort, known as the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative, was launched in late 2020 to encourage fund firms to reach net zero emission targets by 2050 and limit the rise in global temperatures. As of Nov. 9, NZAM counted 291 signatories representing some $66 trillion in assets under management. As recently as May Vanguard was touting commitments it had made in line with NZAM's goals. Vanguard said the change "will not affect our commitment to helping our investors navigate the risks that climate change can pose to their long-term returns." "Vanguard was never serious about implementing its net zero commitment" Cuvelier said in a statement.

☆ U.S. railroad investor resolutions urge paid sick leave for workers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Ross Kerber | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 5 (Reuters) - Investors have proposed shareholder resolutions at two U.S. railroads calling for paid sick leave for workers, an issue that nearly caused a national rail strike, and they could go to an advisory vote at shareholder meetings in the spring. But the deal he approved did not include paid sick days for workers, a key sticking point for unions in contract talks with five major U.S. railroads. read moreProposals seen by Reuters filed by activist investors ask Norfolk Southern Corp (NSC.N) and Union Pacific Corp (UNP.N) to offer "a reasonable amount" of paid sick time, determined by company directors. Kate Monahan, a director at Trillium Asset Management, the socially minded investor that filed the resolution at Union Pacific, said more flexible sick time would have broader benefits like reducing workforce turnover. Railroads worry implementing paid sick leave would require more employees at a time when many have cut their workforces dramatically.

☆ Florida pulls $2 bln from BlackRock in largest anti-ESG divestment
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Ross Kerber | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

This will allow them to hold hearings on ESG and grill the chief executives of BlackRock and other major assets managers about their ESG policies, and also pressure regulators to scrutinize them. Patronis accused BlackRock of focusing on ESG rather than higher returns for investors. U.S. Democratic officials have argued BlackRock doesn't press ESG concerns enough. read moreSo far, only Republican-controlled states have made major reallocations away from BlackRock, including $794 million pulled by Louisiana's treasurer read more and $500 million by Missouri's treasurer, both in October. Reporting by Ross Kerber in New York; Editing by Chizu NomiyamaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Reactions to Apple supplier Foxconn's labour unrest
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 29 (Reuters) - Thousands of employees at Foxconn's (2317.TW) flagship iPhone plant in China have quit since last week, as the major Apple (AAPL.O) supplier battles the latest bout of labour unrest that began in late October due to strict zero-COVID policy. "We see that in these times of unrest, Apple needs to intensify its dialogue with Foxconn management, and if possible Chinese authorities, to communicate in strong terms what its policy expectations are around labour rights, and find solutions to stabilise the situation." As a first step, we have contacted Apple to understand how management views and addresses the on-going situation and what measures they are taking." JANNE WERNING, HEAD OF ESG CAPITAL MARKETS & STEWARDSHIP AT UNION INVESTMENT"This shows the importance of labour standards in the supply chain. We expect Apple, as one of the main buyers, to reassert its influence at Foxconn.

☆ SEC charges Goldman Sachs Asset Management with not following ESG investments policies
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Kanishka Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday charged Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GS.N) with failing to follow its policies and procedures involving environmental, socially oriented and other investments, and fined the company $4 million. The charges were specifically over "policies and procedures failures involving two mutual funds and one separately managed account strategy marketed as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investments," the regulatory agency said in a statement. Without admitting or denying the regulator's findings, Goldman Sachs Asset Management agreed to pay the $4 million penalty, the SEC added. "Goldman Sachs Asset Management, L.P. is pleased to have resolved this matter, which addressed historical policies and procedures related to three of the Goldman Sachs Asset Management Fundamental Equity group's investment portfolios," the company said in a separate statement. The SEC found that, from April 2017 until February 2020, the company had several policy and procedure failures involving the ESG research its investment teams used to select and monitor securities.

At Fortune 100 companies, only 12 chief executives were women as of July 15, the same number as a year earlier, according to Heidrick. The Heidrick & Struggles also report showed 86 CEOs in the group were white, down slightly from 88 in the prior period. "If you want to accelerate the rate of the change in the C-suite, then it (diversity) has to be embedded in the succession plan," Taylor said. In a separate survey, Heidrick found record levels of board seats filled by first-time directors at 43%. Nearly half of the appointees last year were women, while 41% were racially or ethnically diverse, similar to rates in 2020.

Jennifer Schulp, a director at the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, said the Republicans' unexpectedly tight margin of control in the House will not prompt them to tone down their rhetoric. 'REGULATORY EXUBERANCE'Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican in line to lead the House Financial Services Committee in the new Congress, said in an emailed statement to Reuters before the election that Biden's administration "is pushing its agenda through financial regulators because they don’t have the votes to pass it in Congress." "Committee Republicans will work together to conduct appropriate oversight of activist regulators and market participants who have an outsized impact," McHenry said. "The appropriations process in the House will be a messaging exercise, and it's less worrisome since the Democrats will have the Senate," McGannon said. While those Senators will not be in the majority, House Republicans have also criticized companies on ESG-related matters.

Investors souring on ESG funds could pose a challenge to governments seeking to enlist them in the fight against climate change. In 2021, 40% of actively managed ESG funds beat their benchmarks, almost as well as conventional funds. In 2020, the actively managed ESG funds did even better; 57% of them beat their benchmarks, while only 43% of conventional funds did so. One active ESG fund that has suffered in the downturn is Parnassus Core Equity fund (PRBLX.O). It's possible that market trends will come to favour the portfolios of ESG funds in the coming months.

The "Voting Choice" program announced last year by the $8 trillion asset manager could reshape corporate elections both by making shareholders more involved and by diminishing the political criticism BlackRock faces from U.S. liberals and conservatives alike. BlackRock said in a statement that at the end of September clients with around $1.8 trillion in equity index assets managed by the company were eligible for voting choices and that clients with $452 billion were doing so. Last month for instance Charles Schwab Corp's (SCHW.N) asset-management arm said it would start polling shareholders of certain funds about their voting preferences. "Our clients have diverse perspectives, and a growing number would like the option to weigh in on how their index funds vote," Vanguard said in a statement. In addition, BlackRock said it would offer voting choice to more investment strategies and work with investor communications platform Proxymity to extend choice to retail investors in some British mutual funds.

What they want are signals on the pace of regulation that would allow company boards to plan their climate policy. The reality is that not enough has been done in the last 12 months – some would argue we have moved backwards," said Hortense Bioy, Global Director of Sustainability Research at Morningstar. Thomas Hohne-Sparborth, Head of Sustainability Research at asset manager Lombard Odier, said only a small portion of potential investments were credibly aligned towards net-zero. The biggest disruption since last year's Glasgow climate talks has been the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, a major oil and gas exporter. It can be less obvious for some shareholders, however, as this year's high oil and gas prices have rewarded those producing fossil fuels.

Race to Zero members agree to "phase out development, financing and facilitation of new unabated fossil fuel assets, including coal," in line with science-based scenarios. Environmental advocates are concerned that GFANZ members won't be held to that standard or others without their commitment to Race to Zero. The change comes amid tensions between GFANZ and Wall Street firms over how far they should go in their climate commitments. GFANZ said its affiliation with the United Nations will continue. United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell will join a group responsible for setting its strategy and priorities, and monitoring progress, GFANZ added.

☆ 'Golden parachutes' for 3 fired Twitter executives worth $122 mln -Equilar
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Ross Kerber | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 28 (Reuters) - Three top executives of Twitter Inc fired by new owner Elon Musk stand to receive separation payouts totaling some $122 million, research firm Equilar said on Friday. Musk fired Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, according to people familiar with the matter. His total compensation for 2021 was $30.4 million, according to a Twitter securities filing, largely in stock awards. Major payouts to executives tied to changes in control of a company are common to smooth ownership transitions but can be controversial. Equilar director of research Courtney Yu said the fired Twitter executives "should be getting these payments unless Elon Musk had cause for termination, with cause in these cases usually being that they broke the law or violated company policy."

☆ 'Golden parachutes' for fired Twitter executives worth $122 million, research firm says
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Ross Kerber | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 28 (Reuters) - Three top executives of Twitter Inc fired by new owner Elon Musk stand to receive separation payouts totaling some $122 million, research firm Equilar said on Friday. Musk fired Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, according to people familiar with the matter. In an email to Reuters, Equilar, known for its research on executive compensation, valued Agrawal's so-called "golden parachute" at $57.4 million, while Segal's was $44.5 million and Gadde's was $20 million. His total compensation for 2021 was $30.4 million, according to a Twitter securities filing, largely in stock awards. Equilar director of research Courtney Yu said the fired Twitter executives "should be getting these payments unless Elon Musk had cause for termination, with cause in these cases usually being that they broke the law or violated company policy."

☆ Shareholder group wants Tesla to link Musk's pay to ESG metrics
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Ross Kerber | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

If executive pay were tied to goals like cutting emissions or worker rights, he added, "I can tell you those people will put their effort into solving the problems in the system." More companies are linking pay to ESG metrics like cutting carbon emissions or meeting workforce diversity levels, although some studies have found few offer incentives for big changes. Shareholder resolutions at Tesla's 2023 annual meeting are due by early next year. At its latest annual meeting, held in August, investors mostly sided with the recommendations of directors, helped by Musk's 15.6% stake in the company. Tesla faces a series of lawsuits involving alleged widespread race discrimination and sexual harassment including one by a California civil rights agency.

A clock is seen near the logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse at the Paradeplatz square in Zurich, Switzerland October 5, 2022. Credit Suisse is also considering spinning off part of its advisory and investment banking business, which could bring in outside investors and be named First Boston, Bloomberg has reported. If such deals do not materialize or fall short of expectations, Credit Suisse will go for a capital increase, said that person. "I am more worried that Credit Suisse will be bought at a bargain price by an American bank," he said. Ray Soudah, Chairman of Swiss mergers and acquisitions specialist Millenium Associates, said disposals risked making Credit Suisse "an even greater target".

London-based PRI's network of more than 5,000 signatories including Nuveen agree to take steps like urging portfolio companies to disclose more about carbon emissions or workforce diversity. She noted Princeton University recently moved to dissociate its $38 billion endowment from fossil fuel companies. https://bit.ly/3TwDttEA spokesperson for TIAA of New York said it has taken steps including asking portfolio companies to cut emissions. "Large-scale divestments by simply selling fossil-fuel-generating investments to other companies won’t necessarily reduce carbon output," said the spokesperson. Other PRI signatories have also declined to sell off energy stocks.

Companies Xcel Energy Inc FollowSept 29 (Reuters) - More big U.S. companies have tied their CEO pay to climate goals but few give executives much incentive to make significant emissions cuts, a new study shows. Only four other companies tied their executive pay to climate metrics, though they were not as strict about reducing emissions, As You Sow found. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterSome companies may only be trying to look good to investors with vague wording in securities filings about making progress toward cutting emissions, study authors said. As You Sow's study examined all the 47 U.S. companies targeted by the Climate Action 100+ global investor initiative to reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions. Among the 47, more than half did not directly tie their pay to climate actions, the study shows.

☆ Farm and food investors face $150 bln loss on climate change - report
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Ross Kerber | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Cattle gather in a field near a wind turbine in the Landes de Couesme wind farm near La Gacilly, western France, April 26, 2014. The study, seen by Reuters News, found the companies' value would decline by an average of around 7% by 2030, equivalent to some $150 billion in investor losses, if they did not adopt new practices. The report does not name specific companies so it is not taken as investment advice, a campaign representative said. It is being published by Race to Zero, a U.N.-backed campaign to address climate change. The report will be presented at Climate Week in New York, a series of events tied to the gathering of world leaders in the city.

Search resuls for: "Ross Kerber"

25 mentions found