Corporate Governance
If asset managers do not defend their shareholder's interests, who will?
Take decisive action when the situation requires it
Situations that have pushed us to act in the past: Take-over offers at unfair prices, unfavourable merger terms, unnecessarily dilutive transactions, poorly arbitrated conflicts of interest, etc. More frequently, we vote at general meetings in our interests, which implies opposing certain resolutions.
You can find on this page some examples of corporate engagement that we have conducted to improve the corporate governance in our investments. We report annually on our voting at company meetings, and how this compares to our voting policy. This is covered in the document below.
Moneta Asset Management's voting policy and annual report on its application
Our expertise in governance has grown over the years. While we always favour dialogue with companies, we can react quickly when the situation requires it.
Among the means at our disposal that we have used in the past are:
- oral questions at public meetings,
- private meetings with companies,
- written questions to the Board of Directors or the Supervisory Board,
- active participation in AGMs (written questions to the Board of Directors or Supervisory Board with appendix to the minutes of the AGM, role of 'scrutineer', proposed resolutions),
- letters and meetings with legal authority (Autorité des Marchés Financiers),
- meetings with independent experts,
- contacts with other shareholders, etc.
Participate in the improvement of market practices
The quality of corporate governance is very eclectic: it can be structurally good or bad, sometimes deteriorating or improving during a companies' life, depending on financial operations, or due to changes in the shareholders or management.
We believe it is our responsibility as a shareholder to work to improve the governance of the companies in which we invest. This is not only about respecting our rights as shareholders, but also about defending the interests of our unitholders.
Our actions also contribute to improving market practices.
Despite a willingness to stand up for our rights as minority shareholders, we are not "activist" investors. Our motivation in making an investment is always based on an attractive valuation, and we do not make investments where its success or failure depends on us influencing a companies’ strategy or governance.
An important investment criteria and a source of performance
Corporate governance is an essential criteria for assessing the companies in which we invest. We believe that our actions have all contributed, sometimes significantly, to the performance of the funds we manage.
Our total independence allows us to act freely: there is no industrial or financial shareholders in our capital and we have no private management, two potential sources of pressure.
Since the company's creation in 2003, we have carried out some fifteen major actions aimed at improving corporate governance.
No costs associated with our actions are borne by unitholders
In addition to our internal resources, we rely on proxy advisors, are advised by lawyers when necessary and benefit from the advice of Colette Neuville, president of ADAM, a French shareholder’s association. All these costs are borne by Moneta Asset Management, and no costs related to these actions are paid for by our unitholders.