Stewardship

Our approach to stewardship stems from our belief that company management, directors and investors all have critical yet unique roles.

We believe that the proper consideration of relevant environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters affects the long-term sustainable performance of companies and benefits the investors of such companies.

To this end, we:

  • seek to understand the ESG issues that impact companies in which we are invested;
  • evaluate a company’s particular policies and practices in relation to relevant issues;
  • encourage companies to align with best practice on ESG issues;
  • enter into constructive dialogue and engagement where a company’s approach or practices on relevant ESG matters is below investor expectations;
  • leverage our clients’ investor rights to push for desired outcomes from investee companies; and
  • align our votes at general meetings with our engagement objectives.

For more information you can also refer to the stewardship section of our AXA IM RI Annual Report and to the AXA IM Corporate Governance and Voting Policy.

"Board composition should represent the company's business and footprint. Companies with a large proportion of business outside Europe need to have representation, skills and experience in those areas. best practice in board diversity is important to us as shareholders."
Shade Duffy, Head of Corporate Governance