Florida officials work to divest from Chinese government-owned companies

(The Center Square) — The Florida State Board of Administration Audit Committee met this week to discuss the Sunshine State's investment performance and some changes that will impact foreign investment from certain countries.

Chris Spencer, the SBA executive director, was tasked by Gov. Ron DeSantis to analyze the state budget upon his appointment. Spencer said during the committee meeting that they have seen a 9.3% increase year-over-year and credited the state's recruitment and retention efforts, as well as a major focus on Florida's IT overhauls.

During the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers passed House Bill 7071 , which limits the investments the SBA can hold on behalf of the Florida Retirement System which invests in companies owned by the Chinese government.

The bill prohibits the SBA from investing further in these Chinese companies . Furthermore, the SBA must identify any current holdings and divest from these interests by Sept. 1, 2025.

In the bill's summary, it states that preliminary data from November 2023 showed approximately $277.1 million worth of holdings in 211 Chinese companies.

Spencer's two main focuses in his analysis were overseeing the implementation of the bill and updating the state board on its current status. He found that the number of Chinese companies was much higher than initially thought.

"We fully implemented that when the governor signed this bill into law in June, we identified initially 547 publicly traded entities in China that would fall under that criteria and we've initiated contact now with our fund managers to implement divestment from that," Spencer said at the audit meeting on Monday.

Florida lawmakers previously enacted HB5C in 2023, which expands the criteria for prohibited investments and "scrutinized companies" related to Iran. This includes companies with assets linked to Iran and involved in the financial, manufacturing, petrochemical, energy, mining and shipbuilding sectors.

Spencer said that, as of June 2023, 13 companies had been added to a continued examination list related to the enactment of the legislation.

"The corporate governance team is going to continue to monitor those companies over the remainder of this year to determine what further action will be required as it relates to those companies," Spencer said.

The Actuarial Assumptions Conference will be held in October, the SBA will make recommendations to the conference, which will include keeping the current assumed rate-of-return unchanged and increasing contributions to the Defined Benefit Plan.