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BT Pension Scheme’ (BTPS) has appointed Hermes
Equity Ownership Services (EOS) to assist with its responsibilities
as a long term shareholder. Through EOS, BTPS believes it
receives the highest standard of stewardship for its shareholdings,
carried out by a team which brings about corporate change
through a focussed and value-oriented approach.
Social, ethical, environmental and governance
issues are key areas of corporate and policy engagement for
BTPS and they are present in all of EOS’ engagement
analysis, which is itself based on the Hermes Principles.
Principles 9 and 10 recognise the short-termism in companies’
externalisation of costs and appeal for companies to work
together towards a level playing field anticipating much of
the current debate on universal ownership. Importantly, through
EOS, BTPS acts on these Principles in its voting, engagement,
policy and best practice work.
Under the first assessment report carried out
by Mercers on behalf of the United Nations Principles for
Responsible Investment initiative, the BTPS was highly rated,
particularly in the areas of its approach to active share
ownership, voting practices and working with other shareholders.
The report can be found here.
BTPS
Voting
Our approach, exercised through EOS, is to focus
on those issues that are likely to have a significant impact
on shareholder value, thereby connecting the Scheme’s
interests as a long term investor with the sustainability
of companies’ activities. Furthermore, EOS has found
through its interactions with companies in our portfolios
that they are most likely to respond to engagements in these
terms. EOS supports this work by subscribing to various providers
of specialist research on social and environmental issues,
including Trucost and FutureValue, as well as conducting its
own in-house analysis.
Besides engagement on an individual company
level, through EOS, BTPS also works to establish appropriate
regulatory regimes in the various markets in which it invests,
to give companies the certainty they need to plan for the
future and to level the playing field to ensure enlightened
companies are not disadvantaged.
To support this work, BTPS participates in several
important investor initiatives including the Enhanced Analytics
Initiative and the United Nations Principles for Responsible
Investment, of which it is a founder member and provides the
current chairman in Donald MacDonald, a BTPS Trustee.
For more information on BTPS’ approach
to responsible investment and corporate governance, please
contact Colin Melvin or Jennifer Walmsley at EOS on 020 7702
0888. There are also a number of related links you might wish
to follow:
Hermes
Equity Ownership Services
The
Hermes Principles on Corporate Governance
United Nations
Principles for Responsible Investment
Enhanced
Analytics Initiative |
