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PFZW stops investing in stock funds managed by Blackrock ( BLK )

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In part because of BlackRock's ( BLK ) voting at company AGMs

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Fund to switch to active stock management

(Recasts throughout, adds background, context and bullet

points)

By Bart H. Meijer and Simon Jessop

AMSTERDAM, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Dutch pension fund PFZW

has stopped investing in stock funds managed by BlackRock ( BLK )

, in part because of concerns over the U.S. firm's voting

record on sustainability issues, its lead asset manager PGGM

said on Wednesday.

The move comes amid a wider activist campaign in the

Netherlands to push the country's large pension schemes to drop

managers that have reduced support for climate change-linked

resolutions at company meetings.

While some companies have scaled back the importance they

attach to sustainability since the re-election of U.S. President

Donald Trump, many of the biggest Dutch pension funds still

consider it the best long-term approach.

As of March 31, BlackRock ( BLK ) managed around 14.5 billion euros

($16.98 billion) for PFZW but now oversaw a smaller, unspecified

amount of the fund's money market investments, PFZW spokesperson

Ellen Habermehl told Reuters.

"It is getting harder to align with American investment

managers on voting," a spokesperson for PGGM, said, adding it

still works with U.S. managers like Acadian and MAN Numeric,

which manage part of the PFZW listed-equity portfolio.

While PFZW already chose how to vote, it was keen to ensure

it was in line with those managing its money, Sander van Stijn,

Head of Mandate Management at PGGM, said in an interview with

Dutch newspaper NRC. "Otherwise things get very complicated".

BlackRock ( BLK ) said it supported 2% of shareholders'

environmental and social proposals in 2025, down from 4% in

2024, noting the reason for the drop was that many were overly

prescriptive or lacked economic merit.

In June, U.S. asset owner the Sierra Club Foundation said it

would move $10.5 million in assets because BlackRock ( BLK ) had not

pressed portfolio companies enough on climate.

In response to the PFZW move, a BlackRock ( BLK ) spokesperson said:

"BlackRock ( BLK ) clients - including our Dutch clients - continue

to invest through BlackRock ( BLK ) to meet their sustainable investing

goals, entrusting us to manage over $1 trillion in sustainable

and transition assets on their behalf."

Some clients could also decide how to vote on their shares,

they added.

As part of the strategic shift, PFZW, the Netherlands'

second-largest pension fund, said it stopped investing its 50

billion euros in stock market investments passively, to allow it

to buy and sell more easily.

The move had resulted in it selling out of 2,600 companies

and selecting just 756 to invest in, it said.

"For the next five years, we aim for a better balance

between our need for good returns, acceptable risks and

sustainability," PFZW's Habermehl said.

($1 = 0.8542 euros)