News

07/11/2007

Railpen retains GO Japan for governance overlay mandate

Governance for Owners (GO) announces today that its client Railpen Investments (Railpen), one of the largest British pension funds, has extended the corporate governance overlay mandate it has with GO to cover Japan. GO opened a Tokyo office in September 2007, headed by Toshiaki Oguchi, a respected Japanese corporate governance expert. Through the GO Stewardship Service, GO will represent Railpen, which currently invests JPY161 billion (GBP690 million) in Japan, in its communications with Japanese companies on matters of corporate governance.

Railpen has already published a corporate governance and voting policy for Japan, reflecting a longstanding interest in promoting high standards of corporate governance. As a first step, GO will write to each company in which Railpen invests to introduce Railpen and explain the policy, which is the basis for voting decisions at annual general meetings and engagements with companies. The policy will be applied pragmatically and in support of the interests of long-term shareholders.

Peter Butler, Chief Executive and Founding Partner of GO, commented, “We are delighted that Railpen have extended their responsible share ownership mandate to Japan. Corporate governance practices have evolved significantly in Japan and GO looks forward to assisting Railpen in being a good share owner in this important market.”

Frank Curtiss, Railpen’s Head of Corporate Governance, said, “Railpen has long held an interest in governance developments in Japan and has voted at Japanese company meetings for several years. We believe that overseas investors have a constructive role to play and we are looking forward to taking our ownership activities in Japan to the next level with local representation which will allow us to have more meaningful meetings with the Japanese companies in which we invest.”

Toshiaki Oguchi, Representative Director of GO Japan, added, “Non-Japanese investors now own some 30% of Japanese equity. Nevertheless, as communication between non-Japanese long-term pension funds and Japanese companies has been lacking in the past, they have not rightly understood each other. It is important that major international pension funds like Railpen take an active approach to their ownership responsibilities to create mutual understanding which supports long-term corporate value in Japan.”

ENDS

For further information contact:
Peter Butler (GO) 020 7614 4755
Michelle Edkins (GO) 020 7614 4767
Mani Pillai, Penrose (for GO) 020 7786 4814

Notes to Editors:

1. Governance for Owners (GO) was established in November 2004 by Peter Butler and Steve Brown and has operations in Europe, the USA, South East Asia and Japan. The group is an independent partnership between major institutional share owners, a long-term financial backer and its senior executives. GO is dedicated to adding long-term shareholder value for clients by exercising owners’ rights.

GO has two main offerings:

• The GO European Focus Fund, which invests in European public companies where value can be added through exercising owners' rights to address key structural or strategic governance weaknesses that have impaired company performance.

• The GO Stewardship Service, which offers independent corporate governance and share owner engagement services to the world’s long-term public equity owners and their fund managers. The service provides voting advice on the largest 1500 largest companies in the US, Europe, South East Asia and Japan, and this is combined with a more intensive programme of enhanced-value engagement on selected companies within our clients’ portfolios.

Governance for Owners Group LLP, the parent, operates in Europe through Governance for Owners LLP, in Japan through Governance for Owners Japan KK, and in the US through Governance for Owners USA Inc. Governance for Owners LLP is the general partner of the GO European Focus Fund. Governance for Owners Group’s board members include founders Peter Butler and Steve Brown, Bob Monks (Chairman), investor appointees Ronnie Armist and Derek Scott, and independent director Sir John Egan. Bob Monks is also Chairman of Governance for Owners USA Inc, where Bill Crist is Deputy Chairman and Peter Clapman is Chief Executive. The directors of Governance for Owners Japan KK are Peter Butler, Michelle Edkins and, in an executive capacity, Toshiaki Oguchi.

Summary CVs of key personnel can be found on GO’s website www.g4owners.com

2. Railpen Investments is a subsidiary of rpmi, a UK pensions administration firm based in London and Darlington. rpmi runs the Railways Pension Scheme and other railway pension schemes including the British Railways Superannuation Fund and British Transport Police Force Superannuation Fund on behalf of the Trustee, Railways Pension Trustee Company Limited. Railpen Investments oversees the investment of assets worth approximately £20 billion, which are placed with some 35 external fund managers and also manages investment, legal, and actuarial arrangements.

rpmi has a track record as an award winner, recently receiving the Scheme of the Year and the Trustee Excellence awards at the prestigious Brightest Schemes of the Year awards held by Pensions Management Magazines. rpmi also won the award for its pensioner communications at the Professional Pensions magazines Pension Scheme of the Year award. The company has won a number of other awards including the 2002 Corporate Governance Award (Professional Pensions magazine).

Chris Hitchen is the Chief Executive of the Railways Pension Trustee Company Limited and Railpen Investments. He is currently Chairman of the Board of the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) and is a former Chairman of the NAPF’s Investment Council.

More information can be found at www.railpen.co.uk.