For our equity funds, the following principles define the scope of accounts and securities eligible for proxy voting:
1. For actively managed funds, we aim to vote on 100 per cent of equity holdings.
2. For passive strategies, we aim to vote on companies representing 80 per cent by weight of underlying benchmarks. This target may be revised upwards or downwards for specific strategies depending on factors such as portfolio size, geography or market capitalisation.
3. For segregated accounts, including mandates and third-party (i.e. sub-advisory) mutual funds managed by Pictet Asset Management, clients delegating the exercise of voting rights to us have the choice between our policy or their own voting policy.
Our proxy voting guidelines, included within our Responsible Investment Policy, apply to all our investment strategies (we have not set any strategy-specific voting policies or guidelines) and are based on generally accepted standards of best practice in corporate governance. These include board and management, executive remuneration, risk control and reporting, and shareholder rights. The standards give a benchmark for assessing companies and exercising our active ownership duties throughout the life cycle of an investment, from pre-investment phase to engagement, proxy voting, up to the point of exit.
As active managers, we place significant importance on how we vote. The long-term interests of shareholders are our paramount objective. On occasion, we may vote against management if we believe that doing so is in the best interests of shareholders and our clients. Where we do this, we classify the vote as significant, in line with the EU Shareholder Rights Directive II, and we publicly disclose our rationale as part of our quarterly vote reporting. We also reserve the right to deviate from our voting policy to take into account company-specific circumstances.
We believe that governance, both for companies and countries, will come back to the fore and play a much more important role in investors’ agendas as the extended era of cheap money comes to an end.
The following charts provide an overview of Pictet Asset Management’s 2022 voting activity. These are aggregated data compiled during the year.
1. 2022 aggregated votes
Meeting overview
In 2022, Pictet Asset Management voted at 3’576 general assembly meetings out of 3’677 votable meetings for active and passive equities. We voted "against" (including "abstained" or "withhold") to at least one resolution at 1’641 meetings and we did not vote at 101 meetings.
Management resolutions
Out of 42’540 management resolutions we voted against management on 4'401 items (10%), supported management on 37'718 items (89%) and voted "abstain" on 421 items (1%).
We voted against management on resolutions that relate primarily to director election (46%), compensation (21%) and director related (10%)
Shareholder resolutions
We voted against 527 shareholder resolutions out of 1’139 proposals (45%).
The main categories of shareholder resolutions that we didn't support relates to social (34%), corporate governance (19%) and environmental (17%) issues.
We supported 603 shareholder resolutions out of 1’139 proposals (53%).
The main categories of shareholder resolutions that we supported are director election (25%), audit related (12%) and environment (10%).
Deviations from voting guidelines
In 2022 we deviated from third-party recommendations on 218 resolutions. The main categories we deviated were related to director election (98 resolutions), directors-related (43 resolutions) and non-salary compensation including shareholder approvals of compensation related matters (42 resolutions).
2. Voting records
Both our annual and monthly voting records can be viewed here:
Summary 2020 | Summary 2021 | Summary 2022 | |||||
Summary 2023 | January 2024 | February 2024 | |||||
March 2024 | April 2024 |
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Information, opinions and estimates contained in this document reflect a judgment at the original date of publication and are subject to change without notice. Pictet Asset Management (Europe) S.A. has not taken any steps to ensure that the securities referred to in this document are suitable for any particular investor and this document is not to be relied upon in substitution for the exercise of independent judgment. Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each investor and may be subject to change in the future. Before making any investment decision, investors are recommended to ascertain if this investment is suitable for them in light of their financial knowledge and experience, investment goals and financial situation, or to obtain specific advice from an industry professional.
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The investment guidelines are internal guidelines which are subject to change at any time and without any notice within the limits of the fund's prospectus.
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