Since our inception in 1931, the goal of achieving superior long-term results for our clients has shaped our distinctive investment process. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors are intrinsic to this process. A company’s carbon emissions, its relationships with employees and the wider community, the independence of its board of directors and many other ESG factors can have a considerable impact on long-term financial performance and investment returns.

Past results are not a guarantee of future results.  

Active stewardship

Active stewardship of our investments reflects our focus on fundamentals and with a long-term horizon. We regularly appraise the sustainability of the companies and countries we invest in through our proprietary in-house research and engagement with a range of stakeholders. Ongoing conversations with company decision-makers is an important part of active stewardship. Our dedicated Governance and Proxy (GAP) team of 20 specialists conducted 250 ESG-specific engagements over 2017. This is in addition to the more than 12,000 meetings held by investment professionals as part of the fundamental investment research. This deep on-the-ground research and engagement anchors our ability to exercise proxy votes on each of our holdings through in-house decision making, rather than outsourcing this function. We exercised our proxy vote in more than 2,600 annual and special general meetings in fiscal year 2018.^*

^* Data as at 30 June 2018.

European Engagement and Proxy Voting

For more information on our approach to voting activity for our European investment managers, please refer to the Proxy Voting Policies for our Luxembourg UCITS management company Capital International Management Company (CIMC) and our UK MiFID firm Capital International Limited (CIL), as well as our Engagement Policy.

Throughout the year we vote on thousands of proposals at all types of companies from small businesses to international corporations. Given our long-term research-driven investment approach, each proxy vote is analysed on a case-by-case basis. Proxies for those accounts and funds that we manage are ultimately voted for by each investment division for the relevant account or fund.

These investment divisions operate independently from one another. Therefore, if accounts and funds from different investment divisions invest in the same company, those accounts or funds may vote differently on the same proposal if their respective investment divisions determine to vote differently and this will be reflected in our proxy voting reports accordingly.

Links to annual proxy voting records for equity securities held in portfolios managed by CIMC and CIL for each fiscal year will be published here in due course. Reports will be published for each Luxembourg fund managed by CIMC, and in addition CIMC and CIL will each publish a report for those segregated accounts they manage respectively in aggregate.

Industry engagement

We use our voice as investors to contribute to setting high standards of industry practice. We take an active role in key organisations that advance and protect the interests of our clients, among which are:

• Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and Investor Advisory Group (IAG)
• UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)
• International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN)
• Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA)