BlackRock voted against more than four times the number of board directors at
The New York-based asset manager rejected 255 directors in the period ended June 30, up from 55 a year earlier, according to a stewardship report released Tuesday. It also declined to support the management of 319 companies for climate-related reasons, compared with 53 in 2020.
Overall, BlackRock said it supported 35% of 843 shareholder proposals that it voted on in the recent proxy season, compared with 17% in the previous year. Of those, it backed about two-thirds of the environmental resolutions, and about a third of the social and governance proposals, according to the report. Last year, BlackRock said it supported 11% of the environmental proposals, 7% of the social resolutions and 20% on governance.
The world’s largest fund manager said it held more than 2,300 conversations with company executives on climate and natural capital in the year ended June 30. The report didn’t give a corresponding number for the previous year.
While recognizing “incremental” improvement in BlackRock’s voting record, Majority Action, a nonprofit shareholder advocacy group, said the firm needs to “substantially enhance its voting and engagement strategies to protect its clients, company stakeholders and long-term shareholders overall” against the climate crisis and other systemic risks such as racial inequality.
BlackRock said it voted against the re-election of 1,862 directors at 975 companies because of a lack of board diversity. Following the racial injustice protests last year, the world’s largest asset manager said it may
BlackRock said it declined to back the re-election of 2,222 directors at 1,327 companies due to a lack of independence and withdrew support for 758 directors at 639 corporations because they had too many commitments.
The company said it voted against management on 33% of “Say on Pay” proposals — which are votes on executive pay — compared with 26% in the previous year.