Responsible Investor

RI round-up July 25

RI’s bite-sized round-up of the week’s most important responsible investment news.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) says the country’s €19.4bn National Pension Reserve Fund (NPRF) should urgently introduce ‘socially responsible investment policies’ and has launched an attack against private equity companies as “multinational freeloaders”. ICTU said: “The investment of workers’ retirement savings is an area to which ICTU has increasingly turned its attention. It is no longer sufficient to focus solely on the benefits side of pensions, important as these are, but also on the kind of investments made by our pension schemes. These can have a great impact on workers’ jobs and livelihoods.” The NPRF has also reportedly been called to give evidence to the Irish Parliament’s joint committee on foreign affairs over investments in companies linked to Zimbabwe. According to ipe.com, research from Progressio Ireland, an independent organisation for sustainable development, suggested 3% of the NPRF’s assets, at the end of 2006, were invested in at least 14 companied with operations in Zimbabwe.
The fund has challenged the figures. NPRF is a signatory to the UNPRI and has Hermes Equity Ownership Services (EOS) to vote and engage with companies on ESG issues within its €15.9bn global equity portfolio.
The UK Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF), which represents assets of £95bn, says it will continue its campaign to push Marks & Spencer, the UK retailer, to split the role of Stuart Rose as chairman and chief executive, in line with recommendations of the UK Combined Code on Corporate Governance, following the defeat of the proposal at this month’s annual general meeting (AGM). About 22% of shareholders voted against or abstained on the resolution this year, indicating a significant level of shareholder unhappiness.

LAPFF said it would refile the resolution at the 2009 AGM.
Melissa Brown is stepping down as executive director of Hong Kong-based ASrIA, the Asian social investment forum, after almost five years in the post. Brown will remain with ASrIA for the next few months and oversee the transition to a new head in October. ASrIA, which has more than 100 member organisations, is currently seeking Brown’s replacement. The application deadline is the 20th August, 2008 and details about the executive director position can be found at: ASrIA link
Ethos, the Geneva-based foundation which looks after CHF2.3bn (€1.4bn) in assets run on a socially responsible basis on behalf of Swiss pension funds, is pushing Swiss regulators to take a vote on whether a new Swiss company law on governance goes far enough in terms of executive pay and incentives. The Swiss Federal Council recently requested an extensive parliamentary extensive revision of Swiss Company Law in order to strengthen corporate governance, ease the rules regarding the structure of the capital, modernise the procedures at general meetings and reform the accounting law. Ethos said that while it welcomed the draft revision, it believed there was potential for improvement regarding shareholder rights to vote on executive pay. The Swiss Committee for Legal Affairs of the Council of States will examine the draft law revision on August 26, 2008. It is expected that the new law could be debated for introduction in Spring 2009.
Gordon Brown, UK Prime Minister, has presented Ben Watson, campaigns assistant at FairPensions, the UK lobbying group for responsible investment by pension funds and fund managers, with the title of ‘London

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