Active Ownership

As an active investment manager, commonly investing with a long-term view in a concentrated portfolio of holdings, we are often able to develop relationships with the companies in which we invest, engage directly with company representatives and develop an in-depth understanding of a company’s strategic ambitions, including their ESG position and aspirations.

Such an understanding allows us to ensure we are allocating capital to those companies that have strong ESG credentials, or those that are transitioning their business to ensure ESG considerations are fully integrated.

As long-term active investors, we believe that the strength of a company’s governance, along with its environmental and social sustainability is fundamental to its ability to deliver long-term growth. Accordingly, such considerations are incorporated within the research process prior to any investment being made. This review helps to identify any ESG risks which may be best addressed through direct engagement with the target company. The engagement with investee companies is undertaken by the Investment Advisers we work with and by utilising research from Third Party Specialist Companies.

We recognise the power of proxy voting and our obligation to actively participate and contribute to decisions where possible through voting. We use our voting rights to promote best practices, good corporate governance and socially responsible investing principles.

We will aim to vote on all proxies and have therefore engaged Institutional Shareholder Services Inc (“ISS”), a leading third-party provider, to benefit from their experience, extensive research capabilities and vote administration services.

Our Shareholder Engagement Policy sets out how we ensure stewardship and shareholder engagement is central in all we do when acting as Investment Manager to our funds. We fully endorse and support the principles on engagement as set out in the Shareholder Rights Directive II (EU) 2017/828 (“SRDII”).