BlackRock has published its global Q1 2023 report, which highlights that the asset management giant conducted 1,068 corporate engagements in the period, with strategy, purpose and financial resilience the most common theme, while opting not to support any environmental proposals.
The world’s largest fund manager engaged at 943 companies in the first quarter of 2023, with 90 companies engaged with multiple times over 41 markets.
BlackRock supported 28% of all shareholder proposals and opted not to give its backing to any environmental-focused proposals in the period, it revealed. The fund manager supported 34% of governance-related proposals and 11% of social-related demands.
After strategy, purpose and financial resilience, board quality and effectiveness was the second most common theme, representing 646 engagements.
This was followed by climate and natural capital with 436 engagements, and incentives aligned with value creation which was discussed in 395 such engagements. The theme of company impacts on people featured in 355 of its engagements.
BlackRock voted on behalf of over 2,500 companies globally and opted not to support 9% of director reelection proposals. In the Americas region, the main reason the fund manager didn’t support directors related to board diversity quotas, while a lack of board independence was the chief factor at play in the APAC region. In EMEA, BlackRock cited director overcommitment as the primary reason it voted against directors.
The asset manager voted against 30 directors in the EMEA region in Q1 2023, due to compensation concerns, and against 14 in Americas due to remuneration issues.