Funds Hub
Money managers under the microscope
from Global Investing:
Big Beasts
This week might just have seen a marked shift in how British investors think about their role as owners of companies.
First up we had three of our largest unions teaming up behind a set of governance guidelines which they will wave noisily in the air at AGMs, but more significantly, Tuesday morning saw the first steps towards building the kind of collaborative architecture for investors envisioned by the Kay Review.
As first steps go, it's fairly tentative (as was the first, first step). In a sparse announcement, the Association of British Insurers, the National Association of Pension Funds and Investment Management Association said they will set up a working group to report back on how collective engagement "might be enhanced to make a positive difference.” It is a response to Economist John Kay's government-backed report from last July, which argued funds could improve returns to savers by presenting a united front to company boards.
We've looked before at how difficult this will be given the diversity of outlook and motivation among investors. Significantly, Tuesday's statement makes explicit reference to drawing in "overseas investors" who at the last count were heading towards ownership of half the UK stock market, though quite how that might work is hard to see. IMA chief executive Daniel Godfrey told Reuters he has already spent some time sounding out some of those foreign share owners, and encountered a "range of views and a range of enthusiasms." The next step, he says, is to work out whether there's a way to navigate past the obstacles.
from Global Investing:
Investors investigated
We've wondered before about the validity of the British 'shareholder spring' narrative. A few high-profile casualties gave the story drama, but as we showed back in the summer, evidence of a widespread change in thinking was hard to find. KPMG has arrived at a similar conclusion this week.
This morning, FairPensions, a British charity which aims to promote responsible investment, has dug deeper into the behaviour of major institutional investors during that supposedly febrile period, and among the nuggets it has produced is the chart below of voting on contentious pay reports at annual meetings.
from Global Investing:
Making the most of the shareholder spring
We've had a fair while to ponder the implications of a British AGM season which saw investors oust a few CEOs and deal bloody noses to a few others. We've also had some data which implies the revolt wasn't as widespread as advertised, but Sacha Sadan at Legal and General Investment Management thinks we have seen something important, and something that must be exploited.
His take is that austerity is at the heart of the matter. While the public suffers in a faltering economy, and investors stomach dwindling returns, it was never going to fly that pay deals for bosses should survive unchallenged. Add to that government and media pressure on remuneration, plus a new era of investor collaboration thanks to the stewardship code, and you get an ideal set of factors to drive the 'shareholder spring'.
from Global Investing:
GUEST BLOG: The missing reform in the Kay Review
Simon Wong is partner at investment firm Governance for Owners, adjunct professor of law at Northwestern University School of Law, and visiting fellow at the London School of Economics. He can be found on Twitter at @SimonCYWong. The opinions expressed reflect his personal views only.
There is much to commend in the Kay Review final report. It contains a rigorous analysis of the causes of short-termism in the UK equity markets and wide-ranging, thoughtful recommendations on the way forward. Yet, it is surprising that John Kay omitted one crucial reform that would materially affect of the achievability of several of his key recommendations – shortening the chain of intermediaries, eliminating the use of short-term performance metrics for asset managers, and adopting more concentrated portfolios. What’s missing? Reconfiguring the structure and governance of pension funds.
Got those zombie company covenant lite blues
One of the big drivers of the debt balloon that imploded so spectacularly was the trend for covenant “lite”, which has allowed zombie companies to stumble on long past the point at which it would have been useful for creditors to intervene. This has sharpened the appetite for stronger corporate governance around covenants and persuaded investors that they need to take more of an active interest in what companies are actually doing with their money.
Enter the engaged bond investor – for a long time the domain of equity investors with a social conscience, socially responsible investing (SRI) is now being applied to bond portfolios by asset managers Aviva Investors and F&C.
Icahn’t: Carl says no time for blogging, too little interest
Could Carl’s silence be golden?
Our favorite billionaire blogger and corporate raider Carl Icahn is safely avoiding writer’s cramp. His Icahn Report, launched to much fanfare as a hub for corporate governance and reform, has not been updated since April 16.
Reuters caught up with Icahn this week to discuss his intervention in CIT’s attempted rescue. The legendary investor threw a bomb into the lender’s efforts to strike a debt swap deal with its creditors, and to stay in business through a reorganization plan, by offering a $6 billion loan. Asked about the lack of production on his blog, Icahn explained he’s been fully engaged this year:
