Click here to access the KBI Global Investors Proxy Voting Policy.
As investors in hundreds of companies worldwide, we have the right to vote, on behalf of our clients, at the annual meetings of those companies. We believe that this is an important right, and one that should be exercised at all times. It is our policy to use proxy voting for all portfolios and for all votes, other than where we are not given this authority by our client, or in countries where voting is impossible or exceptionally difficult for logistical reasons. We have taken the decision to use the services of an outsourced provider, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), the leading provider of proxy voting advice and administrative services, to assist us with this activity given their expertise in this area and the resources that they can devote to this issue. ISS make voting recommendations to us, based on a pre-agreed set of policy guidelines which are reviewed annually.
We have adopted the “Sustainability” set of voting guidelines, developed specifically to at least meet the UNPRI principles. Recommendations are made using ESG risk indicators to identify moderate to severe ESG risk factors at public companies, and holding culpable board members accountable for failure to sufficiently oversee, manage, or guard against material ESG risks. Those risk indicators cover several topics including the environment, human rights and impacts of business activities on local communities, labour rights and supply chain risks, consumer product safety, bribery and corruption, and governance and risk oversight failures. The guidelines are generally supportive of shareholder proposals that promote greater disclosure and transparency with regard to corporate environmental and social policies, and reporting on sustainable business practices.
We typically follow the ISS recommendation but the final decision is ours in every case and our Proxy Voting Committee can overrule the ISS recommendation. We have full data on our public website on all our proxy voting activity. The site has full details of every ballot voted including the management recommendation, our voting instruction and the reason for our vote.
Please refer to Page 20 of our Responsible Investing Annual Report for further information on voting.
Click Here to view this report.
