March 10, 2023      1:50 PM

DMN: Texas teacher pension fund shed $500M in BlackRock investments over fossil fuel law

The scoop from Allie Morris at the Dallas Morning News:

The state’s biggest pension fund shed more than $500 million worth of investments in BlackRock – the world’s largest asset manager – to comply with a new law meant to punish companies that snub fossil fuels. The Teacher Retirement System of Texas also unloaded smaller positions in UBS Group, BNP Paribas, Nordea Bank and several other financial institutions.

Records of the divestments, released by TRS this week in response to an open records request, provide the first details on how state pensions are affected by the 2021 law passed by the GOP-led Legislature. While the total amount is relatively small for a fund with $179.7 billion in assets under management at the end of the year, the disclosure shows the law is shaping TRS investments.

A spokesman for the TRS said the pension trust fund “is abiding by the statute,” but did not answer questions about how the law is affecting its overall portfolio.

BlackRock did not respond to a request for comment.

Full story here.

Copyright March 10, 2023, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved