Q3 2021 spotlight on

WHY DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION MATTER

With, as yet, no definitive evidence that greater diversity leads to improved financial performance, we outline our approach.

									We voted at
55
Annual General Meetings
+
29
Extraordinary General Meetings
on behalf of our clients

								

									We engaged with
48
companies
for the purpose of raising ESG concerns or seeking further information

								

									Examples of engagement with companies included matters such as:
												supply-chain management
cybersecurity
climate change
human capital management
compensation
diversity
board effectiveness

											

								

Voting profile: Q3 2021

During the quarter, we exercised our clients’ voting rights at a total of 84 shareholder meetings.

Across all regions, votes were instructed against management recommendations on 73 separate resolutions, which equated to 23.8% of the 84 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.

took no action³

in favour of management¹

abstained

against management²

Key issues of concern

ESG quality reviews

We conduct quality reviews analysing the separate ESG aspects of all companies our global sector analysts are considering recommending for investment. These quality reviews are undertaken by our responsible investment team who award an ESG rating score out of 10. Each quarter key issues of concern are identified and are closely monitored by our responsible investment analysts.

Absence of universal adoption of a health and nutrition framework by food retailers.

Lack of disclosure of sustainability strategies, targets and performance.

Boards not comprising of a sufficient number of independent directors.

Examples of ESG engagement

Newton firmly believes that responsibly managed companies are best placed to achieve sustainable competitive advantage and provide strong long-term investment opportunities. For this reason, we engage companies on a variety of environmental, social and governance matters.

Click on each pin for examples of our global engagement.