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August 11, 2022 at 12:06 PM
An anti-activism exchange-traded fund of sorts has launched to supposedly “unshackle” energy companies from climate concerns that some investors have forced them to reckon with.
The aim of the Strive U.S. Energy ETF (ticker DRLL), which began trading Tuesday, is to accumulate enough assets for the Ohio-based manager to have say in the boardroom, according to co-founder Vivek Ramaswamy.
Strive launched in 2022 with backing from billionaire investors including Peter Thiel and Bill Ackman.
DRLL joins a small but growing wave of so-called anti-woke ETFs after issuers such as BlackRock Inc. put their heft behind environmental, social and governance-focused funds in recent years.
With an expense ratio of 41 basis points, Strive is directly positioning itself against BlackRock’s $2 billion iShares US Energy ETF (IYE), which charges the same fee. IYE, which tracks an index that measures the performance of the energy sector, doesn’t have an explicit ESG bend.
However, DRLL’s selling point is that Strive would use its shareholder-voting power to encourage oil and companies to “drill more and frack more,” Ramaswamy said.
