A Deloitte survey of CFOs of US public companies conducted in 2015 identified the following trends. Our experience indicates these trends still hold true, and in some cases, they have intensified. Just under three-quarters of US public companies surveyed experienced shareholder activism, most often in the form of direct communication to management or the board….
Tag: engagement
US shareholder group 50/50 Climate Project merges with firearms-focused Majority Action – Responsible Investor
The 50/50 Climate Project has joined forces with Majority Action: Influencing large asset managers has also been a focus of the group. Kasargod-Staub explained: “We will also focus on the engagement and voting behaviour of asset managers who have outsize influence – that was part of 50/50 Climate Project’s work and it will continue as…
The Prescience of 5% of Investors: A Monsanto Case Study
Even though a proposal receives only a fraction of shareholder support, it may still be the best available opportunity to bring more foresight to investors, board, and management on an issue that may eventually prove costly to a company. Only a small portion of investors may be exercising prescience on risk management or governance issues…
Brunel’s Stewardship Policy
We recommend Brunel’s excellent stewardship policy as a model for institutional investors everywhere. Stewardship is defined as the job of taking care of something, such as a company or property. As investors, we use the term assets. Brunel is committed to responsible stewardship and seeks to contribute to the ‘care’ of all the assets under…
Unilever U-turn shows how angry shareholders are securing change | Financial Times
It took just a few days after Unilever made public its proposal to move its headquarters to the Netherlands for the company to be faced with its first obstacle.Iain Richards, head of responsible investment at Columbia Threadneedle and one of the consumer goods company’s biggest shareholders, lambasted Unilever in a rare public statement in March,…
US SIF: Sustainable, Responsible, and Impact Investing Trends Report
US SIF has published a new report on sustainable, responsible, and impact investing trends, noting a one-third increase: The demand for sustainable and impact investing is growing—investors now consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors across $8.72 trillion of professionally managed assets, a 33 percent increase since 2014. Money managers and institutional investors are scrutinizing…
Comptroller Stringer, NYC Funds: Unprecedented Disclosure of Corporate Boardroom Diversity Following Groundbreaking Campaign : Office of the New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer
New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer and the New York City Pension Funds today announced that after less than a year, the groundbreaking “Boardroom Accountability Project 2.0” (BAP 2.0) campaign, an initiative which pushes for greater corporate board diversity and transparency reforms, has accomplished unprecedented engagement with more than half of the 151 major…
Investors’ Attention to Corporate Governance by Peter Iliev, Jonathan Kalodimos, Michelle Lowry
Seems like a pretty nuanced cost-benefit analysis to us. We develop a direct measure of investor scrutiny to assess the extent of governance-related research conducted by 97 mutual fund families in 3,706 companies, over a seven-year period. Our governance measure is based on the number of times each investor accesses each firm’s proxy and proxy-related…
Blackrock: Here is What We Want to Know about Human Capital Management from Directors and Executives
Blackrock CEO Larry Fink wrote: Companies must ask themselves: What role do we play in the community? Are we working to create a diverse workforce? Are we adapting to technological change? Are we providing the retraining and opportunities that our employees and our business will need to adjust to an increasingly automated world? Now we…
BlackRock turns up the pressure on gun makers – Mar. 2, 2018
BlackRock, calling the issue of gun manufacture and sales one of “tremendous urgency,” is engaging with its portfolio companies: It said it has already had “constructive discussions” with some of the companies. It plans to ask gun makers how they’ll deal with the reputation and legal risks associated with manufacturing civilian firearms, and if they…
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