Insights
Read the latest investor-focused insights from our team on a broad range of topics ranging from activism to sustainability. Please note that we share our Insights only with companies, investors, and law firms.
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.
