Responsible Investor

RI round-up March 27

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

Fidelity mutual fund shareholders have voted not to support a resolution for genocide-free investing, although more than a quarter of votes were in favour. The votes, made on March 19, saw 27% of shareholders of Fidelity’s Capital and Income Fund support a resolution to ban investing in countries linked to genocide, while 28% of the shareholders of the Select Health Care Portfolio voted in favour. A further 10 Fidelity mutual funds did not achieve quorum for a vote. Campaigners at US pressure group, Investors Against Geneocide, said they would present similar resolutions at mutual fund companies including Barclays, Franklin Templeton, T. Rowe Price, and Vanguard in the coming months. Mia Farrow, actress, and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, is backing the genocide-free campaign.
Australia’s government investment funds have come under fire for investing almost 50 times more money in the fossil fuel and uranium industries than in renewable energy, according to a report by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF). The report said funds including the AUS$60bn Future Fund, established to meet the cost of public sector pensions liabilities, were investing in direct conflict with government plans to reduce greenhouse emissions. It also criticised them for not signing up to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. Don Henry, executive director of the ACF, said: “With so much emphasis on climate change from federal, state and territory governments, many people would be shocked to discover government-controlled funds are still investing $47 in fossil fuels and uranium for every dollar they invest in renewable energy.”
The $235bn California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), has placed five companies on its 2008 Focus List, which highlights financial and

corporate governance failings. The companies are: The Cheesecake Factory, a restaurant group, Hilb Rogal & Hobbs, an insurance-brokerage firm, Invacare, the health care equipment supplier, La-Z-Boy and Standard Pacific, both in the household durables and homebuilding sectors. Rob Feckner, CalPERS board president, said “We’re shining the light on lacklustre portfolio companies over serious governance and financial performance issues. Besides having sub-par stock performance, these companies refused to address corporate governance issues that have a bearing on how they perform in the market.” The fund said it had pending shareowner resolutions this year to eliminate staggered boards of directors at many of the companies.
Dutch pension funds including ABP and PFZW (formerly PGGM), have demanded that securities trading firm Van der Moolen (VDM) withdraw its increase from 1% to 3% of stock as the threshold at which shareholders can put issues on the company’s agenda. VEB, the Dutch shareholder rights group, said it had written to VDM to withdraw the adjustment, which was made following an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on March 18.
Bram van Els, spokesman and communications head at PME, the €22bn Dutch industry-wide pension fund for the metal and electro industry, is to launch his own SRI and communications consultancy business, reports ipe.com. Van Els played a major role in shaping PME’s own social responsible investment policy and has been involved in numerous SRI working groups in the Netherlands.
Treasury officials from the US, Abu Dhabi and Singapore have agreed on basic principles of investment for their sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and the

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