Financial Times (December 8)
“Greater shareholder engagement with quoted companies has been one of the key themes in corporate governance to emerge since the financial crisis” and underpins the UK’s stewardship code for institutional investors. In the U.S. as well, there has been a “recent upsurge in activist investing,” along with “growing demands by long-term institutions for greater input.” This creates potential for progress. “It can only be good that shareholders take an active interest in the businesses in which they invest.”
Tags: Activists, Corporate governance, Engagement, Financial Crisis, Institutional investors, Shareholders, Stewardship code, U.S., UK
Investments & Pensions Europe (November Issue)
Awareness has grown “that institutional investors who define their job as beating the peer group benchmark are being irresponsible.” With that realization, responsible investment has reached the first stage. Today, “the challenge for ESG 2.0 is to learn to manage the modern risks that are linked to long-horizon stewardship investing.”
Tags: Awareness, Benchmark, Challenge, ESG 2.0, Institutional investors, Irresponsible, Long-horizon, Peer group, Responsible investment, Risks, Stewardship investing
Institutional Investor (October)
“China is making it easier for more foreign institutions to buy domestic securities in a fresh attempt to deepen institutional presence in the country’s lackluster stock markets.” The Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (QFII) program is being nearly tripled to $80 billion from $30 billion. In addition, the minimum requirement for international investors to directly purchase locally listed securities has been lowered to managed assets of $500 million from $5 billion.
Tags: China, Institutional investors, QFII, Requirements, Stock market
Financial Times (May 23)
Bonds are in. Stocks are out. “Institutional investors, from pension funds to mutual funds sold directly to the public, have slashed holdings in the past decade. Stocks have not been so far out of favour for half a century.” The penchant for bonds could reverse. Or “the end of a six-decade passion for equities could lead to a less flexible, more conservative model of corporate financing.”
