How would you summarize BlackRock's views on common ownership?

Common ownership does not has to be a bad thing. What Barbara is trying to convey is that Asset
Managers are not the same as typical investors or investment firms. Asset managers manage assets
on behalf of pension funds, insurers, sovereign wealth funds, foundations and endowments and
individuals. They invest/manage for a while arrange of groups. They act on behalf of their clients.
They try to convey that ownership is not the same as management. They compare themselves with
Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire Hathaway is active in ownership of companies, holds companies, is
actively choosing companies, takes on board seats and is directly impacted by economic results of
those companies under management. Whereas BlackRock is acting as a fiduciary for clients, hold a
minority stake on behalf of clients, they index portfolios according to equity indexes, does not take
up board seats, clients bear the economic effects and results of the companies, the asset manager
only charges a management fee on the portfolios assets under management. This makes them differ
substantially. So owning or having a large stake in many companies does not have to be a bad thing
and what an asset manager does with this stake or the purpose is different than the typical investor
wants.

Which theoretical or empirical arguments do they use?

What is being done is looking at threshold reporting. Regulatory reporting of share holding does not
represent economic ownership. Early common ownership papers use this data based on threshold
reporting implying ownership by the asset managers. This is wrong since this is not what asset
managers do. Regulatory reporting does not represent that different asset owners have different
investment intents horizons and holdings. They challenge the current literature by saying that the
dataset for airlines is not appropriately constructed. The measure of common ownership includes
market concentration and the statistical methodology does not distinguish appropriately between
correlation and causation.

What are the interests of this group?

The interest of asset managers is managing the assets of their clients well and in return receive a
good management fee. The interest like stated above is not to control companies. Furthermore they
mention to engage in firms for the right reasons, they care about governance, long-term corporate
objectives, compensation, climate risk exposure and human capital. They are put in a negative light
but this is not justified according to them.