The head of the largest oil producer Saudi Aramco, Amin Nasser, will be added to BlackRock’s supervisory board in the future. This was announced by the world’s largest asset manager on Monday.
With this step, BlackRock boss Larry Fink achieves two goals.
First, it strengthens Blackrock’s involvement in the Middle East. The New York-based group, which manages a good $9.4 trillion in customer funds, holds shares in Aramco worth $2.4 billion, according to data from financial services provider Bloomberg. The oil giant went public in 2019.
Second, it also strengthens Fink’s reputation as a balanced group that values both renewable and traditional energy sources.
Nasser has a “unique perspective on many of the key issues facing our business and our customers,” Fink said in a statement.
Fink had campaigned for so-called ESG investing in recent years. It provides for investments according to ecological, social and ethical standards.
However, Fink was offended by the Republicans in the USA. A number of pension funds in Republican-run states withdrew from BlackRock in protest. On the other hand, Democratic US politicians accused him of not doing enough to fight climate change in his influential role.
Fink complained at a conference in Washington last fall that he was getting “criticism from both the right and the left”.
BlackRock is now avoiding the term ESG and prefers to speak of “transition investing”, which stands for investments in the energy transition and is less politically charged.
With agency material.
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