Responsible Investor

response to shareholders’ demands on 18 February, a week prior to its extraordinary general meeting of shareholders scheduled for 27 February 2008. Ethos is also calling on shareholders to vote in favour of a proposal by Swiss pension fund Profond to proceed to a capital increase at UBS with pre-emptive rights. This counters a proposal by the UBS board, which is proposing to issue mandatory convertible notes (to the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) and an anonymous investor from the Middle East to plug its balance sheet. Ethos says the board proposal would suppress pre-emptive rights for existing shareholders: Ethos said: “It is legitimate that current shareholders benefit from their right to subscribe in priority to the capital issue, in order to avoid dilution of their rights. Ethos therefore recommends to oppose this proposal.
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) a collaboration of 385 institutional investors, with assets under management of $57 trillion, has issued its 2008 information request to the world’s largest corporations. The CDP asks companies to measure and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and report on their strategy for dealing with risks and opportunities associated with climate change. For the first time ever CDP will write to China’s 100 largest companies, by market capitalisation.
CDP will also launch new operations in Korea, Latin America, Spain and the Netherlands. The resulting company responses will be held free of charge on the CDP website along with analysis of the responses in September 2008: Carbon Disclosure Project website

Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase have launched The Carbon Principles, to evaluate and act on carbon risks in the financing of electric power projects. The principles were developed in consultation with seven US power companies as well as non-governmental organizations. Under the principles, power companies seeking finance for the building of new coal-fired plants will have to outline how they plan to address carbon dioxide pollution levels.
Friends Provident is looking to sell its 52% stake in F&C Asset Management, one of the UK’s biggest SRI fund managers after it concluded the firm does not fit into its revised strategy, reports IPE.com. Friends Provident said it wanted to concentrate on the protection and group pension markets in the UK, and intends to further develop its overseas business through Friends Provident International (FPI). It said it would sell the stake in F&C and “intends to explore opportunities for these businesses with a view to maximising value for shareholders” while working with the respective management teams to “establish strategies for achieving this while minimising disruption to the businesses”.
PGGM, the €88bn Dutch pension fund, has placed responsible business practices at the heart of a new deal under which it will be paid to take on part of the credit risk of loans on the books of Banco Real, the Brazilian subsidiary of ABN AMRO, the Dutch banking group. ABN AMRO is selling the risk on its loan book using a collateralized loan obligation structure. The CLO references a loan portfolio of $850m (€585m) notional.

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