Profitable rebellion
press that could harm their personal equity in their company. When managers exceed expectations, they make little to no public mentions of ESG strategy and only address their managerial success. 11
Anti-ESG investments
Figure 1: Timeline of New Anti-ESG Fund Products 12
The world of anti-ESG funds, which may appear to have potential, is no healthier. Needless to say, the current anti- ESG ETFs on the market do not pick stocks based on a company’s strong ESG policies or factors, but rather target raw financial returns, actively opposing anything which goes against this ethos. With most only recently having come to market (see figure 1 ), anti-ESG funds have already established themselves as vehicles for expressing frequently extreme political stances. Protagonist in confronting the ESG investing movement, Ron DeSantis claims that the ESG concept is so broad, 13 conflating measures such as employee well-being with broader wokeness goals, that it is not useful in helping businesses and investors decide what to do when its objectives come into conflict (shutting down a coal mine is good for the climate, but not for employees’ well -being, for example). Recent US President candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s Strive Asset Management’s website states that their mission is to ‘ maximize value for our companies by leading companies to focus on excellence ’ . With 8 ETFs amounting to more than $750m AUM, their main business strategy as an asset manager includes taking an active role in the boardroom (as their clients deposit into their funds, their stake of the
11 Flugum, R, and Southern, M. 2023. Stakeholder Value: A Convenient Excuse for Underperforming Managers? July 10. Accessed August 2023. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3725828.
12 Morningstar. 2023. The Anti-ESG Fad Might Be Over Before It Got Going. The Anti-ESG Fad Might Be Over Before It Got Going | Morningstar.
13 The Economist. 2023. How ESG became part of America's culture wars. June 1. Accessed August 2023. https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2023/06/21/how-esg-became-part-of-americas- culturewars.
170
Made with FlippingBook - PDF hosting