Kleinberg Kaplan’s Christopher Davis quoted in Business Insider and The Deal on Bluebell activist action against BlackRock

Christopher Davis, chair of Kleinberg Kaplan’s Investor Activism practice, was recently quoted in the Business Insider article, “The small activist hedge fund taking on BlackRock explains why it wants to oust Larry Fink.” The article details the activist ESG action brought on by Bluebell Capital Partners, a London-based activist hedge fund, against BlackRock, one of the world’s largest asset managers.

Chris shares, “Bluebell is doing what any activist investor is entitled to do — make an argument on the merits and plainly lay it out for others to assess.” He adds, “Does Bluebell really expect to win on all points? I’d be surprised…Is it part of a fairly effective strategy thus far to sort of highlight its name and increase its profile? The coverage suggests that part of the strategy has worked out quite well.”

In an article in The Deal, Chris provides his insight on the question of whether Bluebell’s campaign against BlackRock and its CEO Larry Fink could make it more difficult for the fund to get BlackRock’s support in its future campaigns. “It is an interesting effort, but it probably won’t help getting BlackRock’s support in the future by going after BlackRock now,” Chris shared. He added, “It is a very nuanced argument Bluebell is making…On the one hand they are criticizing Larry Fink personally about how he made ESG such a cornerstone of what BlackRock has done in the past few years, and how it has politicized the firm and created a backlash, but on the other hand, it should be supporting Bluebell’s campaigns.”

To read the full Business Insider article by Rebecca Ungarino, please click here. To access the full article in The Deal by Ronald Orol, please click here. Please note that both Business Insider and The Deal require a paid subscription to access their content.