Lindsey Stewart is Director of Investment Stewardship Research at Morningstar, Inc. This post is based on a Morningstar memorandum by Mr. Stewart and River Meng.
Key Takeaways
Manager Exits Grab Headlines Ahead of Proxy Season
- Five US asset managers recently decided to exit or amend their participation in the Climate Action 100+ engagement initiative. The initiative has faced accusations of collusive behavior, which it denies.
- Invesco, JPMorgan, Pimco, and State Street have left the initiative. BlackRock has restricted its participation to its non-US business.
- The five exited or amended signatories’ support for 20 climate-related resolutions flagged by CA100+ averaged 45%, with a range of 10% to 95%.
Proxy-Voting Records Show No Evidence of Collusion
- Proxy-voting records for the 20 flagged resolutions in 2023 suggest a wide range of voting approaches among CA100+ signatories, not collusion.
- The 50 CA100+ signatories we reviewed supported an average 76% of the resolutions. Support by 10 nonsignatories averaged 27%.
- The 35 asset manager signatories supported an average 74% of the resolutions, ranging from 10% to 100%. Average support by five nonsignatory asset managers in the US stood much lower, at 11%.
Further Evidence of Managers’ US-Europe Divide
- The average voting profile of the five exited or amended signatories is very similar to that of other US managers. The 20 US managers we reviewed supported an average 48% of the 20 resolutions.
- In contrast, 20 European managers we reviewed supported an average 85% of the 20 resolutions.
- Twenty public pension asset owners in the US and Canada averaged 71% support for the proposals. Even among five nonsignatory asset owners, only two supported less than 60% of the 20 resolutions.