The world’s biggest asset manager does not want to own a retail brokerage firm.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink told shareholders Thursday that buying a retail brokerage is simply off the table and “not part of our business model” for the $4.8 trillion asset manager, Reuters reports.
“No” was the word of the day for Fink, who also shot down a shareholder who asked whether Fink would serve on a board of another company any time in the next two to three years.
Proposals for employee and executive compensation were approved by shareholders during the Thursday meeting, but two proposals were shot down. Only 3% of shareholder voters supported the proposal by Investors against Genocide to prohibit investing in companies such as PetroChina and SinoPec that are alleged to help fund government-sponsored genocide in places like Syria and Sudan. Similarly. Only 17% of voters supported the request that BlackRock publish an annual report disclosing its lobbying procedures and payments to lobbyists and trade associations.
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