A report from Neuberger Berman about their engagement with portfolio companies on ESG issues. An excerpt: We believe asset managers have a key role to play in mitigating climate change and the risks it presents to society, businesses and the global economy by directing capital to support climate solutions. Global Corporate Credit ESG Engagement Report We…
Tag: engagement
The Role of Long-Term Shareholder Voice
From Benjamin Colton, Global Head of Asset Stewardship, and Ryan Nowicki, Assistant Vice President of Asset Stewardship at State Street Global Advisors. As a long-term investor, representing quasi-permanent capital for companies held in our clients’ index portfolios, we are uniquely positioned and incentivized to encourage portfolio companies to consider long-term risks and opportunities in order to maximize…
Preparing for the 2023 Proxy Season in the Era of Universal Proxy
The best preparation for any proxy contest occurs in peacetime, and companies should continue to build relationships and credibility with their investors in the context of their ongoing engagement meetings with investors for the benefit of all board members. Given the limited opportunities for directors to meet with investor stewardship teams during the year, companies…
Dutch investor group targets oil, gas execs’ pay plans if climate goals fall short | Reuters
A group of Dutch investors managing assets worth nearly 1.5 trillion euros threatened on Friday to oppose oil and gas sector executives’ pay plans if their companies failed to set climate change goals in line with the Paris Agreement on global warming. The institutional investors, including the asset management arms of insurers Aegon(AEGN.AS) and NN…
Agenda – Pay Cuts Unlikely to be Popular with Executives
In a rare move, the embattled heavy machinery production giant General Electric bowed to investor pressure and cut a previously awarded pay package for CEO Larry Culp this month. Still, investors say they are not satisfied with the board’s attempt to address their concerns about what they view as a poorly aligned executive pay regime….
Shareholder Commons: First Annual Report
“TSC is a new NGO that is catalysing a paradigm shift in responsible investment.” … In their first year of activity, they have begun to build a field of asset owners, asset managers, advisors, and civil society organisations who want a new toolkit to ensure that profits are aligned with social cohesion and environmental preservation. They…
HSBC Shareholders Ask Bank to Cut Fossil-Fuel Lending Exposure – Bloomberg
A group of HSBC Holdings Plc shareholders have filed a resolution urging the bank to cut its support to the fossil-fuel industry. Amundi SA, Europe’s largest listed asset manager, and Man Group Plc, the world’s biggest publicly traded hedge fund firm, were among 15 institutional investors overseeing a combined $2.4 trillion that are backing the…
CERES Ties Governance to Environment
From Ceres, a new report called Blueprint for Responsible Policy Engagement on Climate Change. The full report is below. An excerpt: Companies that establish robust governance systems to address climate change as a systemic risk and align their direct and indirect lobbying efforts to support science-based climate policies will drive the creation of a regulatory…
Paper: ESG Shareholder Engagement and Downside Risk
A new paper from Andreas G.F. Hoepner, Ioannis Oikonomou, Zacharias Sautner, Laura T. Starks, and Xiao Y. Zhou asks “whether engagement on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues can benefit shareholders by reducing firms’ downside risk, measured using the lower partial moment and value at risk. Using a proprietary database, we provide evidence supporting this hypothesis….
Investor Mining and Tailings Safety Initiative | The Church of England
The Church of England Pensions Board and the Council on Ethics of the Swedish National Pension Funds convened a global tailings summit to review the progress of the industry 9 months after the disaster at Brumadinho. This summit included: Release of Phase 1 of a new project: the New Global Independent Tailings Database, including initial…
ValueEdge Advisors 