INTRODUCTION

As manager of our investors’ capital our responsibilities extend beyond making good financial investment decisions. We are also stewards of this capital and this brings additional important responsibilities which require consideration and action.

Modern corporate governance standards typically give investors in companies an opportunity to express their opinion on the management of the company. Shareholders entrust a Company’s Board of Directors (the Board) to provide independent oversight of and guidance to senior management with the power to determine their rewards and change their composition when necessary. These Boards are accountable to shareholders who typically have the right to express their support (or otherwise) by annually voting on the composition of the Board as well as various other aspects of the Company’s governance and legal structure. This governance structure often extends to consideration of large strategic decisions such as acquisitions. A shareholder’s right to vote is therefore valuable. As managers of other people’s money, it is therefore additionally our responsibility to prudently exercise this voting right on their behalf.

As an active investor and a signatory of the Principles of Responsible Investment we are also committed to engage with the companies in which we invest. This engagement covers all forms of communication, from simply asking questions and learning more about the companies in the initial research stages prior to investing, through to expressing our support (or lack thereof) of management and their strategy in private, via annual and ad-hoc voting, or, in extremis, in public via publishing open letters and related media coverage.

Alongside engagement, transparency is also a fundamental pillar of responsible investing. As such, we are committed to a high level of transparency across all aspects of our management and stewardship of the assets we manage. This includes informing our investors as to how and why we have voted on their behalf and those instances where we have had to engage with companies on specific important issues.