Engaging with corporate management

Our main aim is to build relationships and understand the long-term sustainability of the companies in which we invest.

14 May 2020

Our engagement activities:

During 2019, we held over 1400 meetings with prospective or investee companies. Of these, 358 met our definition of engagement. Approximately one third of those meetings were thematic and 19 were focused on UN Global Contact violations. They covered 231 companies across regions and sectors. The majority had global operations and supply chains but were headquartered in developed markets.

Location of companies engaged in 2019

Companies we have been engaging with across the world include 10% in Asia-Pacific, 42% in the Americas and 48% Europe, Middle-East and Africa.

Sectors of companies engaged in 2019

Companies we have been engaging with across a number of sectors including communication services (9%), consumer discretionary (13%), consumer staples (15%), energy (26%), financials (43%), healthcare (24%), industrials (21%), information technology (19%), materials (24%), real estate (12%) and utilities (25%).

In 2019, we introduced an enhanced internal tracking system to assess the progress of dialogue against defined engagement objectives. As this is a new metric and for some of our engagements formalized engagement objectives have only recently been introduced, we expect future reporting to record increased numbers in terms of engagement progress.

In relation to proxy voting decisions, almost one third of our engagements provided useful and tangible insights.

We engaged with companies individually and in collaboration with other investors. Collaborating with peers helped us convey one consistent message to companies on systemic issues which could severely impact financial markets (i.e. climate change). 13% of our 2019 engagements were collaborative.

52% of our engagement meetings were held with the CEO/CFO or another C-suite representative. In approximately 34% of cases we met the Chair or an independent Board member. 31% of our engagement meetings were conducted with an ESG expert, such as the head of the sustainability department.

Topics addressed during our engagements

Our dialogue with companies covered a wide range of topics as the chart below illustrates. A large proportion of the engagements focused on governance, remuneration, business strategy and capital management.

One engagement meeting will likely address more than one topic. In total we held 358 engagements in 2019.

Level of access to companies during 2019

Level of representation	Level of representation	Number of meetings	Number of meetings	Percentage on the total	Percentage on the total
Level of representation	CEO/CF0 and Other C-Suite	Number of meetings	187	Percentage on the total	52%
Level of representation	Chair and Non- Executive board members	Number of meetings	120	Percentage on the total	34%
Level of representation	Corporate secretary or legal counsel	Number of meetings	50	Percentage on the total	14%
Level of representation	IR	Number of meetings	279	Percentage on the total	78%
Level of representation	ESG expert	Number of meetings	105	Percentage on the total	29%
Level of representation	Other	Number of meetings	39	Percentage on the total	11%
Level of representation	Total engagements	Number of meetings	358	Percentage on the total

Topics discussed with companies

Topics	Topics	Number of engagement meetings in which the topic was discussed	Number of engagement meetings in which the topic was discussed	Number of meetings in which the topic was discussed expressed as a percentage of total meetings held	Number of meetings in which the topic was discussed expressed as a percentage of total meetings held
Topics	Corporate Governance	Number of engagement meetings in which the topic was discussed	191	Number of meetings in which the topic was discussed expressed as a percentage of total meetings held	53%
Topics	Strategy & Business Model	Number of engagement meetings in which the topic was discussed	150	Number of meetings in which the topic was discussed expressed as a percentage of total meetings held	42%
Topics	Remuneration	Number of engagement meetings in which the topic was discussed	138	Number of meetings in which the topic was discussed expressed as a percentage of total meetings held	39%
Topics	Environmental Management & Climate Change	Number of engagement meetings in which the topic was discussed	133	Number of meetings in which the topic was discussed expressed as a percentage of total meetings held	37%
Topics	Transparency & Disclosure	Number of engagement meetings in which the topic was discussed	107	Number of meetings in which the topic was discussed expressed as a percentage of total meetings held	30%
Topics	Business Conduct & Culture	Number of engagement meetings in which the topic was discussed	81	Number of meetings in which the topic was discussed expressed as a percentage of total meetings held	23%
Topics	Capital Management	Number of engagement meetings in which the topic was discussed	82	Number of meetings in which the topic was discussed expressed as a percentage of total meetings held	23%
Topics	Human Capital Management & Labor Standards	Number of engagement meetings in which the topic was discussed	63	Number of meetings in which the topic was discussed expressed as a percentage of total meetings held	18%
Topics	Operational Management	Number of engagement meetings in which the topic was discussed	57	Number of meetings in which the topic was discussed expressed as a percentage of total meetings held	16%
Topics	Community Impact & Human Rights	Number of engagement meetings in which the topic was discussed	28	Number of meetings in which the topic was discussed expressed as a percentage of total meetings held	8%
Topics	Audit & Accounting	Number of engagement meetings in which the topic was discussed	26	Number of meetings in which the topic was discussed expressed as a percentage of total meetings held	7%
Topics	Total number of engagement meetings held	Number of engagement meetings in which the topic was discussed	358	Number of meetings in which the topic was discussed expressed as a percentage of total meetings held