BlackRock (BLK) CEO Larry Fink is notching some early wins in the new Trump era.

The latest came Tuesday as the world’s largest money manager announced that a BlackRock-led investment coalition would take control of two key ports on either end of the Panama Canal for the price of $22.8 billion.

The move essentially gives President Donald Trump something he asked for — a larger American presence at this vital shipping lane where he had alleged Chinese interference. 

The ports being picked up by BlackRock are owned by Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison Holding. The canal itself is still controlled by Panama, which still needs to sign off on the BlackRock-led purchase. 

Fink himself reached out to the White House, according to a report by Bloomberg, after Trump in his first day as president said of the canal that he wanted to "take it back." 

He argued to the White House, according to Bloomberg, that there would be no need to forcibly take the ports if BlackRock were to arrange a purchase on its own.

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Trump referenced the deal during his address to Congress on Tuesday night, and reiterated that "my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal" and "taking it back."

BlackRock has taken other recent steps that also happen to align with the preferences of the new Trump administration.

It recently removed all references to DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) from its annual report. It also told employees in a memo that it was ending workplace representation goals and would no longer require hiring managers to interview a diverse pool of candidates.

The memo from Fink and other BlackRock executives stated that the changes were the result of "significant changes to the US legal and policy environment related to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) that apply to many companies, including BlackRock," according to a report by Bloomberg.

Trump has made it clear he wants companies to scrap their DEI policies. An executive order he signed on his first day in office ended federal DEI programs and instructed US agencies to "combat illegal private sector DEI actions."

Fink has long navigated changing Washington, D.C. policies through several administrations of both parties.

In recent years his company became a target of GOP attacks about "woke" investing, with Republicans raising concerns about whether BlackRock’s massive holdings in US corporations force companies to adopt environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards.

Fink has in the past used his annual letter to call for corporations to play an active role in increasing diversity in their workforces.

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"Just as we ask of other companies, we have a long-term strategy aimed at improving diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at BlackRock," Fink wrote in his 2021 letter.

But in 2023, Fink backed away from using the politically contentious ESG acronym, arguing that it had become weaponized by both sides of the political spectrum.

Last December it published new proxy-voting guidance that cut back on language specifically setting how it recommends US boards improve racial and gender diversity.

And in January it pulled out of a UN-supported climate group known as the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAM), following the exodus of several Wall Street banks from an affiliated group in the weeks before Trump took over the White House again.

Even as BlackRock makes these adjustments, it is making a deeper push into alternative assets with three recent acquisitions that cost it more than $27 billion. They included private equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners, a player in energy, transportation, and digital infrastructure projects.

Global Infrastructure Partners is part of the consortium that agreed Tuesday to buy the ports at either end of the Panama Canal, along with BlackRock and Terminal Investment Limited. The deal includes a total of 43 ports in 23 countries. 

"These world-class ports facilitate global growth," Fink said in a joint announcement of the deal, adding that "we are increasingly the first call for partners seeking patient, long-term capital. We are thrilled our clients can participate in this investment.”

The AP reported that Frank Sixt, co-managing director of CK Hutchison, said in a statement that the transaction was "the result of a rapid, discrete but competitive process in which numerous bids and expressions of interest were received" and that the deal was "wholly unrelated to recent political news reports concerning the Panama Ports."

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