Corporate Governance
If asset managers do not defend their shareholder interests, who will?
Take decisive action when the situation requires it
Situations that have pushed us in the past to act: OPROs at unfair prices, unfavourable merger parities, unnecessarily dilutive transactions, poorly arbitrated conflicts of interest, etc. More usually, we vote at general meetings in our interests, which implies opposing certain resolutions.
You can find on this page some examples on corporate engagement that we conducted in favour of a better corporate governance. We report annualy on the application of our voting policy in the below document.
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 have developed reflexes that enable us to 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 companies' life, depending on financial operations, changes in 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 determined actions also contribute to improving market practices.
We are not "activist" shareholders in the Anglo-Saxon way: valuation remains the trigger for our investment decision and we do not invest in companies with the primary aim of influencing 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 these shares 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. All these costs are borne by Moneta Asset Management, no costs related to these shares are supported by unitholders.