Corporations generally are twice as likely to characterize engagements with institutional investors on shareholder concerns as successful vs. investment managers or pension funds and other fund sponsors, according to a study released Tuesday by the IRRC Institute and Institutional Shareholder Services.
Among corporations responding to a survey for the study, 18% believe their institutional investors' engagement efforts are “always successful” and 62% believe they are “usually successful.” Only 8% of responding pension funds and other asset owners believed their engagement efforts were “always successful” and 32% “usually successful,” while among asset managers the belief was 5% and 38%, respectively.
Executive compensation was cited by 51.6% of responding pension funds and other asset owners as their most frequent subject for requesting engagement. But 53.8% of asset managers and 49.3% of corporations cited financial and strategic issues as their most frequent subject for their requests for engagement.
Among responding pension funds and other asset owners, 45.2% cited financial and strategic issues as the least major subject for requesting engagement, behind 48.4% each for environmental and social issues.
IRRC Institute commissioned ISS to do the study, which was based on an online survey conducted from last March to May of 161 investment managers, pension funds and other institutional investors and 335 corporations. In-depth follow-up telephone interviews were done with 21 of the investors and 22 of the corporations in August and September.
