Montagnon defines investor engagement

There is scope for European legislation directing asset owners who issue mandates to service providers in Europe to say that they have “thought through” what they want their asset managers to engage with companies on, ICGN conference delegates heard. Peter Montagnon, senior investment adviser of corporate governance at the UK Financial Reporting Council, says there … Read more

Code of conduct for proxy voting industry

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has developed a set of high level principles with the aim of encouraging the proxy voting industry to develop its own code of conduct. Speaking at the ICGN conference in Milan, the head of the investment and reporting division at ESMA, Laurent Degabriel, said it will set a … Read more

The smoking gun at CalSTRS

For a pension fund that describes itself as “ponderous”, the $154-billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System, CalSTRS, has moved uncharacteristically swiftly in recent months. The second largest public pension fund in the United States, the plan for teachers and faculty is in the process of divesting its holdings in gun manufacturers following the massacre at … Read more

Breakfast with AQR’s Cliff Asness

Having a breakfast meeting with Cliff Asness is a wake-up call. He will let you know if you’re late – something he holds in very little regard. He admits he has to constantly remind himself that just because he’s 20 minutes early to everything that others are not automatically then 20 minutes late. Asness is … Read more

Tackling sustainability in emerging markets

Emerging market investing and sustainable investing easily rank as two of the most substantiated of the many investment trends of the past decade. However, the two styles of investing are far from natural bedfellows. Christian Ragnartz, as chief investment officer of the $17-billion-plus Swedish pension fund AP7 – which has 13 per cent of its … Read more

Maverick Series video – Gonski part IV

A Chinese proverb says “women hold up half the sky” and, while Australia may have been among one of the first nations to implement universal suffrage, glass ceilings can still be a hazard for professional women in this day and age. See what Future Fund chair David Gonski has to say on equal representation on super … Read more