BlackRock's newly released Investment Stewardship report, which captures its proxy voting-focused stewardship activities for the 12 months ended June 30, reveals a plethora of noteworthy statistics, engagement examples, and instructive commentary that should help inform companies' engagement and disclosure going forward.
Key takeaways include:
- Globally, BlackRock supported 35% of shareholder proposals (297 of 843), compared to 17% (155 out of 889) the previous year. By category, it supported 64% of environmental shareholder proposals; 35% of social proposals; and 32% of Governance proposals.
- In the Americas region, BlackRock voted against 172 directors (including abstentions), and 177 companies (including votes against or abstain on director elections and director-related proposals and votes in support or abstain on climate-related shareholder proposals), for climate-related concerns. Globally, votes against management for climate-related concerns were most common among Energy sector companies, as shown here:
- Globally, BlackRock determined that approximately 65% of the companies assessed from its 2020 climate focus universe (54% of the entire universe of such companies) made meaningful progress. As recently reported, BlackRock expanded its focus list from 440 public companies last year to more than 1,000 companies this year that purportedly represent 90% of the Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions (based on MSCI data) of the companies in which it invests on behalf of its clients.
- BlackRock voted against 1,554 directors in the Americas region for insufficient board diversity – the #1 reason for its votes against directors in this region.
The report includes a list of companies BlackRock substantively engaged.
See these articles: “BlackRock: Lack of diversity, independence drove critical board votes” (Reuters), “BlackRock cites corporate governance 'concerns' for voting against 10% of directors’ elections” (Investment Week), “BlackRock: Companies making progress on climate risk, but not diversity” (P&I), “BlackRock’s Annual Stewardship Report Takes on Buffett, ExxonMobil, and Political Contributions” (Institutional Investor), and “BlackRock Stewardship Report Highlights Engagement and Voting on Climate, Diversity, Governance” (ESG Today), and additional information & resources on our Institutional Investors page.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!