Wednesday 2 May 2007

How US managers vote on social resolutions

I've just come across some excellent stats on how US fund managers votes on shareholder resolutions that address corporate social responsibility issues. The FundVotes webpage provides info on what percentage of these sorts of resolutions different managers support. Not surprisingly there is a wide variation, and socially responsible investors are far more likely to support resolutions.

Of course we can't do anything similar in the UK because fund managers here aren't obliged to make the information public. Social resolutions are very rare in the UK, with perhaps one or two a year at max, and sometimes none at all. But if you did want to find out how the various UK managers compare you would be lucky if you could find information on a quarter of them.

That's why voting disclosure remains an important battle here.

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