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AQTION, a SquareWell brand, published its inaugural review of how the world's largest 65 investors are evaluating environmental, social, and governance issues and stewarding their porfolios. Together, these investors manage nearly $81 trillion in assets.

In last year’s Client Memo, titled “Reframing ESG”, SquareWell Partners (“SquareWell”) looked to reframe the term Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) by putting the role of governance back in the spotlight and dissociating it from the two megatrend “Environmental” and “Social” issues. We argued that “Governance” should be viewed as the means of facing environmental and social risks and opportunities, not as an isolated element from this effort. This push was widely welcomed by the various market players ranging from academia to institutional investor

Despite the politicization of the topic in certain jurisdictions, investors have played a key role in ensuring that portfolio companies focus on tackling challenges presented by climate change. To this end, investors have been using different tools to enact change at portfolio companies, including engaging with investee companies, divesting from certain companies or sectors; submitting climate-related shareholder proposals; and incorporating climate change considerations in voting decisions at shareholder meetings.

A look at how the world's largest asset managers (collectively managing close to $60 trillion) approach ESG, engagement with companies and activist campaigns from hedge funds.

Institutional investment strategies in global markets are categorized increasingly in a binary fashion: active and passive. These terms reveal the underlying attributes of an investment to the market and to portfolio companies, including how a shareholder will manage its stake, and therefore how it is likely to engage with companies on important strategic matters.

In this memo, SquareWell Partners (“SquareWell”) looks to reframe the term Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”), which has recently become synonymous for sustainability, by putting the role of governance back in the the spotlight. Further to this, informed by our Investor Survey which includes responses from institutional investors representing approximately $25.2 trillion in assets under management, we deep-dive into important governance issues and analyse the “Environmental” and “Social” topics currently top of mind.

SquareWell Partners (“SquareWell”) analyzed activist campaigns at the largest companies globally from September 2019 to December 2021. The review focuses on those campaigns that escalated to challenge management proposals or the submission of shareholder proposals; campaigns that are yet to reach a public outcome, such as Elliott at GlaxoSmithKline (“GSK”) and Cevian at Aviva, did not form part of our analysis.

A SquareWell study looking at CEO dismissals and appointments at the world's largest companies since 2019. The study, which will be updated on biannually, provides trends in succession planning disclosure, reasons for dismissals, diversification of CEO profiles, and many more.