Summary of stewardship activities

  • We voted at
    254AGMs+
  • 70 EGMs
    on behalf of our clients
  • We discussed ESG considerations with

    55issuers
 

Voting profile: Q1 2023

During the quarter, we exercised our clients’ voting rights at a total of 324 shareholder meetings.

Across all regions, votes were instructed against management recommendations on 148 separate resolutions, which equated to 46% of the 324 meetings.

1 In favour of management on all resolutions.
2 Against management on one or more resolutions. Including abstentions and withhold votes where there was no option to vote against.
3 Took no action owing to share blocking.

2

took no action3

174

in favour of management1

0

abstained

148

against management2

Voting chart

Please note that some strategies are not available in all jurisdictions.

Important information

Your capital may be at risk. The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and investors may not get back the original amount invested.

Any reference to a specific security, country or sector should not be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell investments in those countries or sectors. Please note that portfolio holdings and positioning are subject to change without notice.

Newton manages a variety of investment strategies. Whether and how ESG considerations are assessed or integrated into Newton’s strategies depends on the asset classes and/or the particular strategy involved, as well as the research and investment approach of each Newton firm. ESG may not be considered for each individual investment and, where ESG is considered, other attributes of an investment may outweigh ESG considerations when making investment decisions.

Newton seeks to exercise voting rights in all markets, and the decisions taken are on a case-by-case basis. This ensures that a company’s individual circumstances and the nature of the voting item are taken into account, together with relevant governing laws, guidelines and established best practices.

Fundamentally, voting decisions aim to support our investment expectations and also reflect any engagement activities undertaken. We employ a variety of research providers that aid us in the vote decision-making process, including proxy advisors such as ISS. We use ISS for the purpose of administering proxy voting, as well as its research reports on individual company meetings. Only in the event where we recognise a potential material conflict of interest do we routinely follow the voting recommendations of ISS.

Our ability to exercise voting rights may be hindered by practical considerations. For instance, in certain markets, shares are ‘blocked’ before the exercise of voting rights. Blocking consists of placing the stock on a register for a number of days spanning the meeting. During the share-blocked period, the shares cannot be traded freely. In markets where share blocking is practised, we will vote only when the resolution is not in shareholders’ best interests and where restricting the ability to trade does not risk adversely affecting the value of clients’ holdings.

We may also opt out of exercising voting rights if the entity or persons related to the entity are subject to economic sanctions.

As would be expected owing to the nature of the underlying investments, a majority of voting activity takes place for equity and multi-asset portfolios, which invest in listed equities that are, generally, required to hold annual shareholder meetings. For fixed-income investments, there are few instances of proxy voting being undertaken owing to these securities not carrying the same ownership rights as equity securities.

The overarching principles that guide the ultimate voting decisions made are described in our Responsible investment policies and principles.

On this website you can view all company meetings in relation to which we received the portfolio’s ballots and had the opportunity to exercise the underlying voting rights. Rationale is provided where we voted against the recommendations of management.

Please note that the voting data on this website does not include client-specific portfolios managed on a segregated basis. Not all strategies are available in all jurisdictions. Data covers stewardship activities in relation to investments of Newton Investment Management Limited, Newton Investment Management North America LLC, and from 1 March 2023, Newton Investment Management Japan (together, ‘Newton’).