A certified "public interest" nonprofit
123 institutional investors, fund managers, and insurance companies, and four service providershave signed up to comply with Japan's Stewardship Code in what will probably turn out to just the first round of compliance statements. Of these, (only) threeinstitutions are special sponsor (significant donors) to BDTI. The list of signatories, and the code itself, can be downloaded at this link:
http://www.fsa.go.jp/en/news/2014/20140610-1/01.pdf
IMA’s fourth report on adherence to the FRC’s Stewardship Code looks at the activities that support institutional investors’ commitment to the Code in the period to 30 September 2013.
http://bdti.mastertree.jp/f/r8oy9juw(Excerpts here; download below) – The ICGN welcomes the opportunity to comment on METI’s project entitled “Building Favorable Relationships between Companies and Investors” arising from the Ito Review and we draw upon the experience of our members in providing our response. In addition, ICGN has adopted statements of principles and best practice guidance that bear on a number of the questions raised in the consultation.
Environmental and social topics continue to be the dominant category of shareholder proposals based on the number of proposals submitted – more than half to date.
They also represent the leading area for proposals withdrawn in connection with successful company-investor engagement and agreement prior to the proposal going to a vote. This agreement may include implementation of the proposal in part or full, providing additional disclosure, or a commitment to ongoing dialogue on the topic.
Abstract: In explaining how activists engage corporations, social movement theory has provided a compelling account of contentious activism and tempered radicalism. The growing use of dialogue, by contrast, has not received a comparable level of attention. On the basis of a four-year qualitative study of a faith-based coalition of investors, we develop a process model of how shareholder dialogue leads to corporate change. Through repeated engagement activists leverage internal corporate political debate to achieve synthesis.
This document is a proposal and set of investor recommendations on a stock exchange listingstandard focused on corporate sustainability disclosure. The aim of the proposal is toestablish key elements of a minimum global standard for corporate sustainability reporting
that would provide investors with:
Soon Japan will have its first stewardship code. You can download a translation of the exposure draft of the stewardship code here:
http://bdti.mastertree.jp/f/yj8ez02t
At the same time, Matthew Orsagh of the CFA Institute has written this useful summary of recent development related to stewardship and engagement around the world:
http://blogs.cfainstitute.org/marketintegrity/2014/03/26/shareholder-engagement-bridging-the-divide-between-boards-and-investors/
Abstract: We analyze an extensive proprietary database of corporate social responsibility engagements with US public companies over 1999–2009. Engagements address environmental, social, and governance concerns. They are followed by a one-year abnormal return that averages +1.8%, comprising +4.4% for successful and zero for unsuccessful engagements. We document outperformance following environmental/social, as well as governance, engagements.
The attached working paper looks at investment manager resistance to ESG Integration from a behavioral perspective. I would be grateful to receive feedback or a critical review of it from anyone so inclined. Thank you.
”Stewardship is a term that is nowadays part of daily parlance in investment and business circles. Stewardship is recognised as important by governments and regulators. Stewardship is no longer an optional extra and has to be taken seriously.