South Carolina announces plan to divest Disney stock (2023)
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Disney has faced pushback from ESG opponents. In his book The Dictatorship of Woke Capital, ESG critic Stephen Soukup argued that Disney and its CEO Bob Iger were too involved in political and social debates in several American states and did not push back sufficiently against the Chinese Communist Party. Soukup criticized Disney for opposing a bathroom bill in North Carolina and an abortion bill in Georgia while also filming movies in China’s Xinjiang province where Muslim Uighurs are held in detention camps and perform forced labor.
More recently, Disney and Iger have clashed with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over state laws and the company’s tax benefits.
Now, the state of South Carolina will be divesting its Disney holdings in response to the company’s public decision to boycott advertising on X/Twitter. South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis (R) called Diseny’s decision a breach of fiduciary duty:
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South Carolina state Treasurer Curtis Loftis announced on Tuesday that Walt Disney Company is being removed from the Palmetto State’s approved investment list. In a letter, he argued that Disney has abandoned its fiduciary duty to investors by "boycotting" X. Loftis’s office portfolio has about $105 million of Disney debt instruments that will mature as scheduled and will not be replaced, according to the treasurer. Loftis said he will focus on the equity portfolio in the coming weeks. “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,” he said in a Tuesday statement.[1] |
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See also
- Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG)
- Economy and Society: Ballotpedia's ESG newsletter
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
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