Liontrust engagement and voting report 2021 - Flipbook - Page 25
Share lending
Liontrust operates a share lending programme when it believes it is in
the best interests of clients or it is requested by clients.
If stock has been loaned then the voting rights are given up and
it is necessary to recall the loaned stock to vote it. Liontrust’s
Governance and Stewardship team endeavours to recall all stock
whenever possible through our custodian, BNY Mellon, prior to
a meeting deadline and restrict stock being lent out when we are
aware of upcoming meetings.
Rationale for our voting decisions
There are specific considerations that contribute to Liontrust’s
rationale for its voting decisions. These take the form of regional,
jurisdiction-level corporate governance norms. This is supported by
reports, reviews and initiatives that can be attributed to ESG themes
required to align with the SRD II.
Environment
In 2021, Liontrust’s voting policy for FTSE 350 constituent companies
stated that when Liontrust deems corporate disclosures and/or
management actions on climate change risk to be insufficient or a
company fails to be proactive in communicating its strategy for reducing
carbon emissions, we may withhold support for the re-election of
directors or other related proposals.
Liontrust voted in 2021 on 36 proposals at 25 meetings pertaining
to climate change, the environment, greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions and/or energy. It is important to note that most of these
proposals (28/36 or 77.8%) were filed by shareholders. Liontrust
supported 50% of votable shareholder-filed proposals (14/28
proposals at 17 separate meetings) relating to climate change and
100% (eight proposals at eight separate meetings) of those filed
by management.
Liontrust will enhance its custom voting policy in 2022 on climate
resolutions to clarify minimum expectations from companies. We
reserve the right to vote against the Board Chair at companies
when we feel that climate change is a major risk and the board
cannot demonstrate publicly that it is preparing sufficiently for it.
Furthermore, we will aim to take into consideration the research
and attributions provided on portfolio companies by organisations
such as Climate Action 100+ (CA100+), Transition Pathway
Initiative (TPI), Carbon Tracker and CDP.
In 2022, Liontrust will also start disclosing the carbon emissions of
its single strategy equity funds as part of fulfilling its commitments
to the Montréal Carbon Pledge. We consider voting to be an
important tool to implement change using the knowledge we
gain from CA100+, TPI and CDP data. Importantly, through
disclosure, we can identify areas of our portfolios that may benefit
from increased engagement and escalation by voting to influence
environmental outputs.
Liontrust: Engagement and Voting Report 2021 - 25