institutional investors

Tim Smith on Conflicts and Opportunities in Mutual Fund Proxy Votes: Progress at Vanguard

Posted on by ValueEdge blog staff

VEA Vice Chair Nell Minow interviewed Walden’s Tim Smith for the Huffington Post:

I’ve written earlier pieces about the failure of the people who manage our money, especially our retirement savings to provide essential feedback to the companies whose stock they buy on behalf of more than 40 percent of working Americans, charging us as many as 16 undisclosed fees and usually voting against shareholder initiatives on improving board, increasing the link between CEO pay and performance, and making better disclosures on climate change, cybersecurity, diversity, and other issues relating to investment risk and corporate reputation. There’s been a little bit of progress at Vanguard, one of the most powerful and influential money managers, with more than three TRILLION dollars invested, so I asked one of the most thoughtful leaders in this field, Tim Smith of Walden Asset Management, some questions about why that is important and what it means.

 

How much stock in big American companies is controlled by these firms?  How much money is involved?

These are massive investment firms. BlackRock has over $5 trillion dollars in Assets they are managing and Vanguard approximately $3.5 trillion. The raw size of their holdings results in having tremendous power with the companies they own. Most firms that have outreach to their primary investors always make sure to arrange visits with Vanguard and BlackRock as a necessary stop.

 

Why does it matter how they vote on topics like climate change and disclosure of political contributions when even a 100 percent vote is advisory only and does not require the company do  anything?

 

Shareholder resolutions filed on social and environmental issues have a 45 year history as investors raise important environmental , employee relations, human rights, workplace health and safety issues among others. These resolutions and the engagements that accompany them have had a significant long-term impact on company policies and practices. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of examples of companies responding positively to investor input by

* expanding their corporate disclosure for investors and the public

* changing their policies, practices, and behavior

* updating governance policy

*taking forward-looking steps on an issue like climate change

*making sure hazardous products are removed from food or a production process influencing workers.

*adding diverse candidates to the Board

And the list goes on. Whether a shareholder resolution is binding or not seems immaterial . Companies often see these issues as affecting their reputation and their credibility with investors or consumers as well as affecting them financially over time. Thus many companies take action stimulated by the case being made by investors — but also by their own sense of how acting in a responsible way is good for their business and long term shareholder value.

 

So how investors vote is vitally important because it is a clear indicator of how a company’s shareowners feel about an issue. To blindly vote for management in virtually all cases not only distances the investor from important decisions that affect them financially but is far from acting as a “responsible fiduciary.” In short, it definitely matters how they vote your shares!

 

Every mutual fund company files a form NPX each August disclosing how they vote. So there is a public record. In addition Ceres, the environmental organization, summarizes how funds vote on climate related issues, a good indicator of an investment firm’s voting stance. You can see which funds vote for climate resolutions 0 percent of the time or 15 percent or over 50 percent.

 

What have you been doing to try to get Vanguard and Blackrock to be more transparent and engaged in share ownership rights like proxy voting?

 

Over the last several years companies like BlackRock and Vanguard which had a consistent record of voting against all social and environmental resolutions faced growing pressure from clients and investors. In addition, media attention compared them unfavorably to companies like State Street which showed real forward progress in proxy voting. In addition, PRI expects its members to demonstrate seriousness in being an “active owner.”

 

Walden Asset Management, where I serve as Director of ESG Shareowner Engagement, led a shareholder resolution to both companies and was joined by other investors  as cofilers. This prompted both companies to sit down with us to see if we could come to an agreement allowing the resolution to be withdrawn before the vote. As I said, even non-binding shareholder proposals can have an impact.

 

Both discussions were productive, leading to agreements, and both companies disclosed their new thinking about proxy voting on their websites, highlighting their deep concern about climate risk and their strong support for diversity on boards of directors.

 

What does this latest statement from Vanguard signify?  Does it go far enough?

 

These are important steps forward by two of the world’s largest investment managers. Their engagements with companies send a strong message to executives that it is necessary to address and urgently  act on climate change, for example. But their voting record is still at the bottom of the ladder. They voted for two resolutions, at ExxonMobil(62.3 percent shareholder support) and Occidental (67 percent shareholder support) but they voted no on dozens of other climate-related resolutions. It’s a start but still demonstrates a very modest voting record. Pressure will doubtlessly mount on these two giants to match their rhetoric with actual votes pressing companies to move with some sense of urgency on key environmental and social issues.

 

What more would you like money management firms like Vanguard and Blackrock to do?

 

Vote more aggressively, be transparent about what is put on the table in their meetings with companies (no need to mention companies by name), join other investors in speaking out on key environmental/social/governance issues affecting companies financially, meet with shareholder resolution proponents to better understand their positions, speak publicly about the value of the shareholder resolution process, and make sure will not be eradicated by proposals by led by the Business RoundTable or Chamber of Commerce.

‘No President in the U.S.’ Leads $53 Billion Fund to Sell Stocks – Bloomberg

Posted on by ValueEdge blog staff

A leadership vacuum in the world’s biggest economy has driven the largest private-sector pension fund in Finland to cut the weight of U.S. stocks in its 45 billion-euro ($53 billion) portfolio.

“It seems as if there is no president in the U.S.,” Risto Murto, chief executive officer of Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co., said in an interview in Helsinki on Wednesday. “If I look at what is the moral and practical power, there is no longer a traditional president.”

Source: ‘No President in the U.S.’ Leads $53 Billion Fund to Sell Stocks – Bloomberg

What Slate’s Money Podcast Missed About ESG/Impact Investing

Posted on by ValueEdge blog staff

It really hurts to do this because I have nothing but admiration for all these guys and they get huge bonus points for a completely hilarious title for this episode. But holy moly did they get it wrong. Here’s their description:

Felix Salmon, senior strategy officer at a political risk startup, Anna Szymanski, Slate Moneybox columnist Jordan Weissmann, and Julia Shin—vice president and managing director of Impact Investing at Enterprise Community Partners—discuss:

the disbanding of Trump’s CEO council

companies’ responsibilities to their shareholders

impact investing

Here’s what they missed, very, very briefly:

Perhaps they think that their audience is primarily made up of the tiny fraction of Americans who sit at home and make individual stock picks. That’s not very likely; they’re over at Motley Fool. Most individuals, as the people on this podcast know very well, invest via mutual funds and pension funds. The story they should be looking at, which they touch on very briefly, is the evolving role of large institutional investors, like Blackrock, in the area they call “impact investing” or ESG, and, just as important, the way that evolving role reflects a more sophisticated understanding of metrics and indicators that are just as quantifiable and just as important for evaluating risk and return as too-easily manipulated traditional metrics like EPS and PE ratios. Both of these points are absolutely fundamental, but most of this podcast skirts those issues by accepting outdated notions about trade-offs between financial gain and investing to warm the cockles of the heart.

I won’t reiterate the extensive writing we have done on those issues, which we will continue to explore even more extensively in the future, I’m sure. We hope some day Slate will, too.

Source: The CEO council disbanding, companies’ responsibilities to shareholders, and impact investing.

Vanguard seeks corporate disclosure on risks from climate change

Posted on by ValueEdge blog staff

Vanguard Group on Monday said it has urged companies to disclose how climate change could affect their business and asset valuations, reflecting how the environment has become a priority for the investment industry.

Under pressure from investors, Vanguard and other fund companies have pushed to pass several high-profile shareholder resolutions on climate risk at big energy firms like Exxon Mobil Corp and Occidental Petroleum Corp during the spring proxy season.Vanguard manages about $4 trillion and is often the top shareholder in big U.S. corporations through its massive index funds – giving it a major voice in setting corporate agendas.

Vanguard, the biggest U.S. mutual fund firm by assets, had not supported climate activists on similar measures. But Glenn Booraem, Vanguard’s investment stewardship officer, said in a telephone interview on Monday the issue as well as shareholder proposals have evolved.

Source: Vanguard seeks corporate disclosure on risks from climate change

Campaign urges U.S. public pension funds to divest from owner of Trump hotel

Posted on by ValueEdge blog staff

Advocacy groups launched petitions and sent letters on Wednesday urging two of the biggest U.S. public pension funds to divest from an investment fund unless it stops paying one of President Donald Trump’s companies to run a New York hotel.<P><P>Reuters reported on April 26 that public pension funds in at least seven U.S. states periodically send millions of dollars to an investment fund that owns the upscale Trump SoHo Hotel and Condominium in New York City and pays a Trump company to run it, according to a Reuters review of public records.

Source: Campaign urges U.S. public pension funds to divest from owner of Trump hotel

World’s biggest pension fund goes gender equal for the WIN – Financial News

Posted on by ValueEdge blog staff

Japan’s $1.2tn Government Pension Investment Fund is forging ahead with its gender equality drive, picking MSCI’s “Empowering Women” WIN index to benchmark its progress.

The giant fund has begun by shifting about 3% of its passive domestic equity investments, or around one trillion Japanese yen ($8.8bn), into index funds tracking three socially-responsible benchmarks, it said today.

One of these, MSCI’s Japan WIN index tracks companies that “encourage more women to enter or return to the workforce”. It ranks companies according to the gender balance of their new recruits, current workforce, senior management and executive board.

The other two indices it picked today – MSCI’s Environmental, Social and Governance Select Leaders and the FTSE Blossom Japan index – track Japanese firms that perform well on a more general social-responsibility agenda.

Source: World’s biggest pension fund goes gender equal for the WIN – Financial News

Wall Street investors throw their weight in corporate votes – The Globe and Mail

Posted on by ValueEdge blog staff

Big investors are losing patience with unresponsive corporate directors, and they’re showing it with their votes.Shareholders have withheld 20 per cent or more of their votes for 102 directors at S&P 500 companies so far this year, the most in seven years, according to ISS Corporate Solutions, a consulting firm specializing in corporate governance. While largely symbolic, the votes at companies such as Wells Fargo & Co. and Exxon Mobil Corp. are recognized as signals of displeasure and put pressure on boards to engage.

“Institutional investors are becoming more actively involved in communicating displeasure through their votes,” said Peter Kimball, head of advisory and client services at the consulting firm, a unit of Institutional Shareholder Services. “Voting against directors at large-cap S&P 500 companies is a way for an institution to send a signal to other, smaller companies about the actions that they don’t like. That feedback trickles down.”

While the Trump administration moves to reduce regulatory pressure on companies, big institutional investors are moving in the opposite direction. State Street Global Advisors and BlackRock Inc., for example, are increasingly taking an activist approach, calling for changes in diversity and corporate responsibility.

“Part of this is really the shift in investors to focus more on board quality,” said Rakhi Kumar, who leads environmental, social and governance investment strategy at State Street. “Board responsiveness is a key reason why shareholders will hold directors responsible. If engagement isn’t working and boards aren’t being responsive to our feedback, then we take action.”

State Street voted against 731 directors in 2016 and expects a similar number this year, after rejecting 538 in 2015, Ms. Kumar said. No longer are investors just “checking a box” to support directors, she said. State Street is encouraging companies to refresh their boards to get new and more diverse members. (emphasis added)

Source: Wall Street investors throw their weight in corporate votes – The Globe and Mail

BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street bulk up governance staff

Posted on by ValueEdge blog staff

BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street have expanded their corporate governance teams significantly in response to growing pressure from policymakers and clients to demonstrate they are policing the companies they invest in.The move by the world’s three largest asset managers, which together control nearly $11tn of assets, will help address fears that investors are not doing enough to monitor controversial issues around executive pay and board diversity at the companies they invest in.

Source: BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street bulk up governance staff

Are Fund Managers Pushing Back on CEO Pay?

Posted on by ValueEdge blog staff

Financial Times notes:

[T]here are tangible signs that a growing number of investors are taking action to rein in excessive pay for company bosses. The consensus is that pressure from the public, politicians and clients have combined to put pressure on the investment industry to prove it is willing to push back on egregious pay packages.

Graeme Griffiths, a director at Principles for Responsible Investment, a UN­backed organisation whose members oversee a collective $62tn of assets, says: “Society is calling on fund managers to be more engaged. The public is now more aware of [wealth inequalities] than they were before.

“There has been a lot of academic research, news coverage and changes in the political landscape that have increased scrutiny of the differentials between those in well [paid] positions in the corporate arena versus those in more typical jobs. [Asset managers] are certainly partly responsible for this divergence over a long period of time.”

BlackRock, which was urged to toughen its voting approachurged to toughen its voting approach after approving 97 per cent of US pay resolutions in the 12 months to the end of June 2015, this year urged the CEOs of the UK’s largest companies to ensure salary increases for executives did not outpace those for average workers.

The world’s largest asset manager was also slightly less lenient on pay in the US last year, approving 96 per cent of remuneration reports in the 12 months to the end of June 2016, according to figures compiled for the FT by Proxy Insight, the data provider.

BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink additionally wroteLarry Fink additionally wrote to the heads of large global companies this year warning them that BlackRock would not “hesitate to exercise our right to vote against . . . misaligned executive compensation”.

50/50 Climate Project Shows Conflicts Skew Proxy Voting Decisions

Posted on by ValueEdge blog staff

Ross Kerber reports at Reuters:

Several big fund firms supported challenges on executive pay or climate disclosures less frequently where they had business ties to energy companies and utilities, according to a new study released on Tuesday.

The scrutiny of firms including Vanguard Group and Invesco Ltd is the latest research to raise questions about how well they manage potential conflicts of interest when casting proxy votes at the same time they are trying to win work like running corporate retirement plans….For its study 50/50 reviewed how fund firms voted on 27 proxy questions last year at oil and gas companies and utilities, tracking how often they voted against management recommendations.

At Vanguard, for instance, 50/50 found the $4 trillion Pennsylvania index fund manager broke from management 22 percent of the time. But at four companies where Vanguard serviced retirement plans, its funds did not support any challenges….Another fund firm, Invesco, broke with management 12 percent of the time, and at none of seven companies where it had business ties.

Kerber’s article includes more information and responses from the managers included, denying that the votes are influenced by conflicts. The full report is on the 50/50 website.

[T]he 50/50 Climate Project found that the managers who tended to vote in favor of management received more in fees and stewarded more assets than all other managers combined, and that their voting practices were even more management friendly at companies with which they had business relationships.