Liontrust Sustainable Investment Engagement and Voting Annual Review 2021 - Flipbook - Page 24
Collaborative engagement
UN PRI Just Transition
We continue to participate in the UN PRI Just Transition Investor
Working Group, designed to promote the Just Transition and
highlight to investors how important the social dimension is in the
energy transition to an ultra-low carbon economy including: staff,
customers, and broader community groups.
Transition to Sustainable Investment
We continue to educate investors and the market on sustainable
investment by providing presentations for financial advisers as part of
their ongoing training (CPD). Notably, we presented at the SimplyBiz
ESG events taking place for one of the largest IFA networks in the UK,
which reached hundreds of advisers. This is in addition to ad hoc
presentations of this type to clients and potential clients.
Voting summary 2021
In 2021, we voted at 95% (140 out of 147) of eligible meetings
and against management or abstained on proposals on least one
vote in 52% (76 out of 147).
The following graphic shows (in green) the number and percentage
of eligible meetings where we voted against or abstained on these
particular issues. For our voting policy and full details of our voting
record, see our website at www.liontrust.co.uk/sustainable
Re-election of chair
Remuneration
Re-election of directors
Ratification of auditors
(110 total votes)
(117 total votes)
(113 total votes)
(110 total votes)
14
16
15%
12%
of eligible
meetings
94
The re-election of the Chair of
the Nomination Committee
41
36%
of eligible
meetings
32%
of eligible
meetings
103
The approval of the
company’s remuneration
report/compensation
35
72
The re-election of one or more
company directors*
of eligible
meetings
75
The ratification of auditors/
authorisation for the Board to fix
remuneration of external auditors
Source: Liontrust, December 2021. *Due to lengthy terms of office, bundled director elections or lack of independence.
Case study: Abcam – remuneration
Held under our Enabling
innovation in healthcare theme,
Abcam provides high-quality
research tools to enable the progression of life science research.
As a top 20 shareholder, we were consulted about a proposed new
long-term incentive plan for the CEO and Senior Management and
expressed our view that the plan was too generous. The company
appears to be trying to compensate for perceived failings around
what the CEO received historically but, in principle, we believe this
is the wrong way to think about things. The past is the past and
companies should not attempt to reward people with easy targets in
the future because of this.
Although we understand there is global competition for talent, and
thus the US is the correct comparison, in general we thought the
level was too high. The peer group used was not disclosed in the
proposal document, nor clearly explained, containing an eclectic mix
of new founder-led businesses and significantly larger organisations.
We believe CEOs and individuals should be incentivised and well
rewarded for good performance but the articulation of this plan
was not reassuring in our view. We downgraded our management
quality rating for the company and reduced our position size.
For 2022, our team has committed to looking more closely into the
topic of remuneration but, more specifically, the link to exacerbating
increasing income inequality. While we believe management need
to be incentivised correctly, pay quantum and the appetite for
companies to keep reviewing pay to be aligned with the top quartile
in their sector represents a longer-term systemic issue.
All use of company logos, images or trademarks in this document are for reference purposes only.
24 - Liontrust Sustainable Investment: Engagement and Voting: Annual Review 2021
