Though Florida led the charge against Disney, it’s not the only red state to decide that that woke company’s antics have gone on for long enough and what action can be taken against it needs to be taken. South Carolina just hopped on that train, with the Palmetto State’s Republican State Treasurer, Curtis Loftis, announcing on Tuesday that Disney has been removed from South Carolina’s approved investment list.
What that effectively means for Disney and South Carolina is that, due to concerns with what Loftis called Disney’s “political agenda,” South Carolina will replace the $105 million in Disney debt instruments that it currently holds as those debt holdings mature. So, while it will let the current instruments mature as scheduled, it will be replacing them with non-Disney financial instruments after that maturation. Further, South Carolina will examine its equity portfolio, presumably to clear Disney out of it, in the coming weeks.
In a press release on the matter, the Treasurer’s office said, “South Carolina State Treasurer Curtis Loftis has removed The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) from its approved investment list. The State Treasurer’s Office portfolio contains $105 million dollars of Disney debt instruments that will mature as scheduled and will not be replaced. The Treasurer will focus on the equity portfolio in the coming weeks.”
Continuing, the press release added that Treasurer Loftis told his staff, “Disney has abandoned its fiduciary responsibilities to its investors and customers by joining far-left activist in boycotting legal, taxpaying, employment-creating corporations to further Disney’s political agenda.”
Treasurer Loftis added that “multi-billion-dollar corporations should not engage in boycotts designed to silence legitimate debate. Since America’s founding, freedom of speech has been one of its core principles, and Disney should not engage in nefarious practices aimed at silencing those with less power and money.”
This is not the first time that Treasurer Loftis has used South Carolina’s investment portfolio to take action against woke companies. In 2022, for example, he divested from Blackrock. In a press release at the time, his office said, “South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis announced that he is divesting the final $200 million of BlackRock holdings from a $5 billion portfolio managed by his office, a move that completes a series of actions taken against BlackRock to reduce its impact on the state’s investment portfolios.”
Continuing, that press release added, “Treasurer Loftis began removing all BlackRock holdings from the state and local government portfolios under his supervision in 2017. He also rejected the global investment firm’s bid to manage a portfolio which now holds more than $40.3 billion in assets for the state because of BlackRock’s increasing focus on promoting progressive Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors as part of its investment strategies.“
Speaking on the matter, Loftis said, “Five years ago, I realized that ESG had the potential to seriously undermine our state’s economic model from one that values fiduciary responsibility and sound financial judgment to one that pushes the left-wing political agenda of ‘stakeholder capitalism’. As the elected state treasurer, it’s my obligation to our citizens and government agencies to act in their best interests by prudently investing and managing $70 billion in public funds. I am not interested in allowing the whims of CEOs on Wall Street and their special interest friends to supplant the voices of our citizens nor the decisions of their elected representatives.”
Continuing on that point, Loftis added, “I have been clear with our financial partners that they will not usurp my fiduciary responsibility to maximize investment returns while accepting a prudent level of risk for the benefit of our citizens. It is imperative that we stand up to BlackRock and others to resist the pressure to adopt their Leftist world view.”
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