AVRO, page-391

Sorry to be the party pooper here, but Blackrock & Vanguard don’t know what they hold intimately. They are the worlds largest & second largest asset managers respectively & largely run passive (index) funds. That means they invest in companies in proportion to their size, with flagrant disregard for what the company does (unless it’s one of their funds or ETF’s with an ESG or factor based filter). 7% of Abbott is peanuts as a % of the total value of the funds. (Abbott is 0.61% of the S&P 500, so will be 0.61% of an iShares or Vanguard S&P500 index fund).

Also, since they own assets as part of a unit trust (a managed fund or ETF) no-one “owns” them in the sense of having any control of discretion about where they invest. The unit holders of these funds are probably 70%+ of all Australian adults via part of their super funds, or via any number funds or ETFs that they run.

In fact - 90% of HC posters would do well to acquaint themselves with Vanguard or Blackrock iShares index funds - they’d get better results than DIY judging by the amount of complaining on HC.

if you’re going to hold AVR, put in the work, get to know the company inside out & back to front, Know what you hold (and why) and then control the things within your control (emotions / behavior) and forget what others may or may not be doing. Who “owns” Vanguard of Blackrock and what % they own of Abbott, Medtronic, Edwards, Boston Scientific (yes, they own all 4) has no influence whatsoever over the fate of AVR and your investment in it.

Things have changed in a major way, so it’s time to make sure you have conviction in your holding or you may not realize the full benefit of being an AVR shareholder. Best of luck to all.