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The Capital Market Impact of Blackrock’s Thermal Coal Divestment Announcement

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  • Bassen, Alexander
  • Kaspereit, Thomas
  • Buchholz, Daniel

Abstract

This study examines how coal companies were affected by the announcement of thermal coal divestment made by Blackrock, a large institutional asset manager. Following the announcement, the largest thermal coal mining companies exhibited negative abnormal returns. However, the stock prices of other firms were not affected. Blackrock’s own share price increased following the announcement. We provide additional evidence that Blackrock protected its clients by lowering its exposure towards affected companies before the announcement. Overall, our results show that divestment has significant impacts on the companies in question and that the capital market sees divestment as value-enhancing for the divesting institution.

Suggested Citation

  • Bassen, Alexander & Kaspereit, Thomas & Buchholz, Daniel, 2021. "The Capital Market Impact of Blackrock’s Thermal Coal Divestment Announcement," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:41:y:2021:i:c:s1544612320316883
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2020.101874
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    Cited by:

    1. Shen, Yiran & Sun, Xiaolei & Ji, Qiang & Zhang, Dayong, 2023. "Climate events matter in the global natural gas market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    2. Guo, Xiaozhu & Liang, Chao & Umar, Muhammad & Mirza, Nawazish, 2022. "The impact of fossil fuel divestments and energy transitions on mutual funds performance," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    3. Rahat, Birjees & Nguyen, Pascal, 2022. "Risk-adjusted investment performance of green and black portfolios and impact of toxic divestments in emerging markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Divestment; Thermal Coal; Event Study;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors

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