When it comes to voting policies there are plenty of choices to be made. Most responsible investors would also agree that “one size doesn’t fit all”. That’s why Manifest isn’t tied to providing just one flavour of research or voting guidance. Globally we take account of not just the local governance codes but also supra-national bodies such as OECD and ICGN.
Independent, Objective Governance Research
Just because we are UK headquartered that doesn’t mean we think that global companies should be judged by UK standards. In the UK, for example, our research builds on the guidelines published by various trade association Investor Protection Committees (IPCs):
- Institutional Shareholders’ Committee (ISC)
- The Association of Investment Companies (AIC)
- Investment Management Association (IMA)
- The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF)
- Association of British Insurers (ABI);
We also factor in the guidelines of major global investors such as, for example, Hermes, F&C, Aviva; Universities Superannuation Scheme and RailPen, all of whom make their guidelines publicly available. The views of global investors with public voting policies are also taken into account, whether they are customers or not. This ensures we can offer an across the board perspective of what constitutes best practice.
Conflicts of Interest
Manifest serves institutional investors for proxy research and advice. We do of course have other types of clients such as remuneration consultants, academics and also issuers. What we don’t do is provide consulting services to issuers as we believe this would compromise our ability to meet the needs of investors for unbiased analysis. The same applies to our vote agency, it is tailored to the needs of asset owners and managers.
