On one hand, the concentration of share ownership has addressed some of the issues connected to the separation of ownership and control. On the other hand, there are still intermediaries between the beneficial holders and the companies whose stock is held on their behalf. This is all the more reason for a strong, enforceable fiduciary…
Category: institutional investors
Proxy Voting 2021: Report from Sidley, Insightia, Okapi
We highly recommend the new report from Sidley, Insightia, and Okapi on proxy votes in 2021. Some highlights: The 2021 proxy season was revolutionary in many respects, as investors used their voting powers to communicate their expectations to issuers on a variety of concerns. Investors exhibited renewed interest in a myriad of ESG issues, including…
Proxy Insight: Proxy Votes in 2021
Proxy Insight has published their report on proxy voting in 2021. The most significant findings: The five largest institutional investors increased their support of environmental shareholder proposals by an average 13 percentage points between the 2020 and 2021 proxy seasons, compared with four percentage points for all investors.The top five backed 100% of climate transition…
Huge investor coalition urges governments to accelerate climate action | Corporate Secretary
A huge investor coalition has called on national governments to accelerate policy changes that will support investment in climate change solutions. A group of 587 investment firms with a collective $46 trillion in assets under management yesterday issued a statement urging governments to take a range of actions, from strengthening emissions targets to mandating climate…
Big investors demand annual vote on companies’ net zero plans | Financial Times
More than 50 large investors are demanding companies publish details of efforts to tackle climate change and give shareholders a vote on their plans, arguing that many businesses making “net zero” commitments for 2050 are doing little to act on them. JPMorgan Asset Management, M&G and 51 other investors, which together manage more than $14tn…
New blood at Wall Street’s old guard rattles Corporate America
This year marks a sea change as top funds throw more of their weight behind investor challenges to companies on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and put companies on notice by often choosing to publicize how and why they voted, a Reuters review of voting results and fund firms’ new disclosures shows. A record…
A Glimpse of a Future With True Shareholder Democracy – The New York Times
[L]ack of proxy voting capability leaves vast numbers of investors out of the equation, and gives corporations inordinate power. Consider that roughly half of all American households, comprising tens of millions of people, have a stake in the stock market. But most own equities indirectly through funds — mainly index funds. That leaves fund managers…
Activist Stewardship
Highlights from a new article on hedge fund activism on behalf of long-term shareholder value, from Robert Eccles (Oxford University), Aeisha Mastagni (CalSTRS), and Kirsty Jenkinson (CalSTRS): The time has come for “activist stewardship.” Simply put, this means putting the skills and techniques of activist hedge funds to work where a company’s financial performance is…
How Vanguard Looks at Shareholder Proposals
From the Veritas Compensation in Context newsletter, courtesy of John Galloway, how Vanguard evaluates shareholder proposals: We assess each proposal through a fiduciary lens. First we look for alignment with the Vanguard funds’ corporate governance principles in the company’s board composition, the board’s oversight of strategy and risk, executive compensation, and shareholder rights. We then…
Want a Bigger Say on Corporate Behavior? Move Your Money – The New York Times
My conclusion is that C.E.O.s have performed an artful head fake with their high-sounding promises, deflecting public attention from the Roundtable’s decades-long advocacy of measures to weaken regulations and reduce the already attenuated power of shareholders. What you won’t find in the Roundtable’s statement is this: For-profit companies exist to serve their owners, not their…
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