MHP is working with Tomorrow’s Company and a Stewardship Working Party of leading institutional investors consisting of Aviva Investors, Blackrock, Governance for Owners, Railpen Investments, Ram Trust and USS, which is seeking to improve the quality of stewardship of companies, i.e. the way shareholders use their share ownership to interact with company boards in the UK.
The group will identify the styles of investor engagement with boards that are most effective and share that intelligence widely. The practitioner-led group will also examine how companies judge the quality of stewardship, sources of frustration and what they would like to see change.
The group intends to make a significant contribution to the 2012 revision of the Stewardship Code which the Financial Reporting Council is proposing to take effect from October 2012.
The launch of this initiative announced this week received significant media interest and coverage including the FT, The Times and the Daily Telegraph, as well as key financial trade press such as Financial News.
The first report stage is due in March.