(Bloomberg) – BlackRock Inc. CEO Larry Fink said the narrative around ESG investing has gotten ugly and is creating “huge polarization.”
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“I take this very seriously,” Fink said in an interview with Bloomberg TV at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “We try to dispel misconceptions. It’s difficult because it’s not business anymore, they do it in a personal way. And for the first time in my professional career, the attacks are now personal. They try to demonize the problems.
Fink, 70, has been outspoken about investing with environmental, social and governance goals, making it a focal point in his annual letters to industry. The company has become a political punching bag of forces on both ends of the spectrum, with some on the right arguing that its policies are hurting the fossil fuel industry and others on the left arguing that it is not doing enough to respond to climate change.
Elon Musk tweeted earlier that the S in ESG stands for “Satanic”. The Twitter CEO was responding to a post on the World Economic Forum from Michael Shellenberger, who ran in the California gubernatorial primary race last year.
“Let’s be clear, the narrative is ugly, the narrative is creating this huge polarization,” Fink said. “If you really read the CEO letters I’ve written in the past, I’m talking about a transition.”
To manage the fallout, the asset management giant poured record sums into US political campaigns last year, mounted an advertising campaign to explain its money management business for retirees and called on additional lobbyists in Texas and Washington.
“We’re doing everything we can to change the narrative,” he said, adding that he plans to write a letter to business leaders this quarter that will focus on the “concept of hope.”
“BlackRock is a company trying to sell hope because why would anyone put anything in a 30 year bond unless you think something will be better in 30 years?”
BlackRock’s assets under management, which had crossed the $10 trillion threshold at the end of 2021, stood at $8.590 billion at the end of December despite inflows into its funds during the fourth quarter.
–With help from Tom Metcalf.
(Updates with Elon Musk’s tweet in fourth paragraph)
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