GO Stewardship Services
Introduction
The GO Stewardship Service (GOSS) provides independent corporate governance and share owner engagement services for the world’s long-term public equity owners and their fund managers.
The GOSS voting and corporate governance overlay service currently covers quoted equities in Europe, the US, Japan and South East Asia. It is GO’s belief that engagement with companies is best done by experienced local professionals who are based in a region and are able to follow closely the market-specific factors that affect companies and how they are governed. Accordingly, the service covering European companies is carried out by our multi-national team based in London, in consultation with our regional representatives. The service covering American and Japanese companies is carried out by our teams in the US and Japan. In addition, GO works closely with HIM Governance in Singapore to cover South East Asia.
The Service
Through GOSS, clients are advised how to vote their shares ‘intelligently’ based on a pragmatic review of proxy research, taking account of the unique circumstances, and the performance history and prospects, of companies. It also carries out on behalf of clients the underlying engagement with companies that is necessary to vote in light of the range of issues beyond compliance. This ‘structural’ engagement is undertaken on approximately 20% of the companies in a client’s portfolio.
In addition, the GO Stewardship Service undertakes more intensive and longer term engagements on a selected subset of a client’s portfolio. These strategic or enhanced-value engagements take more time and involve the more senior members of the GO team, in particular, those with investment and business backgrounds. In Europe, engagements focus on the strategic and value-orientated aspects of how a company is run. In the US, engagements focus on structural and policy issues. Enhanced-value engagements are selected and prioritise based on the level of clients’ holdings in the company. Through this programme GO also carries out ad hoc engagements as a result of company-specific events.
Other aspects of GOSS
As part of the GO Stewardship Service, we will also help clients develop their own corporate governance and voting policies that reflect the specific concerns of the client. In addition, we will tailor specific governance engagement programmes to meet client requirements.
Our clients are interested not only in exercising their ownership rights but in shaping the framework in which long-term share owners and the companies in which they invest operate. Accordingly, the Stewardship Services team advises clients on policy and regulatory issues and works with them on responses to consultations.
GO is a firm believer in working with others who have common goals. We cooperate with a range of institutional investors and fund managers through our membership of various groups with the aim of improving share owner rights. GO is a signatory of the UN Principles of Responsible Investment and the Enhanced Analytics Initiative. In addition, we cooperate with a number of organisations in promoting share owners’ interests, including Eumedion (the Netherlands) and the Asian Corporate Governance Association. We are actively involved in groups such as the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), the National Association of Pension Funds, the UK Social Investment Forum, the Pacific Pension Institute and the Council of Institutional Investors.
GO and Milberg
Milberg LLP (www.milberg.com) and Governance for Owners USA Inc. (GO) (www.g4owners.com) are working cooperatively to advance the cause of good corporate governance. Milberg is one of the premier class action and complex litigation firms, representing a host of institutional and individual investors and consumers worldwide, while GO adds long-term shareholder value by providing a range of corporate governance and shareholder engagement services to its clients. Consistent with GO's strategic platform, Milberg has often sought corporate governance enhancements as part if its litigation efforts. GO provides Milberg with enhanced guidance - covering matters such as board of director elections and accountability, corporate audit procedures, financial management oversight and exeuctive compensation - in the context of shareholder litigation in the US. GO and Milberg also plan jointly to organise and sponsor educational conferences on corporate governance. Watch for future postings regarding these exciting upcoming events.