The Minerva Voting Guidelines

The Minerva Voting Guidelines

Minerva helps investors vote their shares efficiently and effectively using state of the art technology and information tools. An actionable voting policy is integral to that process and uniquely, Minerva tailors all its guidance to a client’s individual preferences by default. Customised voting guidance is based on a blend of overarching global principles, supplemented by regional guidelines based on local market standards, all of which can be flexed to create a truly individual voting policy.

Minerva Voting Platform

Minerva’s voting platform provides efficient vote management tools and a fully integrated policy engine which ensures that client’s policy preferences are applied consistently. The policy engine is a sophisticated decision-support algorithm which combines analyst research and objective data points thereby creating an efficient and streamlined process. Minerva Voting Policy Templates are completely transparent to clients and available online where they can be reviewed by market or by policy issue.

Global Principles

Minerva starts with the universally recognised G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance[1] and the International Corporate Governance Network’s (ICGN) Global Corporate Governance Guidelines (5th Edition)[2]. There are six core standards to the OECD Principles and although the ICGN’s guidelines also use the OECD Principles, ICGN has nine focus areas.

G20/OECD Principles


An effective governance framework
The rights of shareholders
The equitable treatment of shareholders
The role of stakeholders
Disclosure and transparency
The responsibilities of the board

ICGN Guidelines


Corporate objective
Corporate boards
Corporate culture
Risk Management
Remuneration
Audit
Disclosure and transparency
Shareholder rights
Shareholder responsibilities

Local Standards

Governance principles, company law and listing rules vary significantly from market to market. Therefore, Minerva also analyses companies through the lens of local market standards. Minerva currently has 42 local market standards.

Voting Template

Shareholder resolutions and governance principles are rarely matched; therefore, Minerva’s Voting Template combines eight macro policy pillars together with nine categories of voteable meeting resolutions. These are supported by sub-pillars and categories to ensure that a voting policy can be effectively translated to each local market. Up to 1,000 questions and data points are used to inform each voting template.

Governance Ratings

The Minerva voting guidelines and associated data points have been developed to provide complementary stewardship support services, most notably a series of highly customizable ratings, as follows:

The Minerva Sustainable Funds Rating
The Minerva Governance Rating
The Minerva Sustainability Rating
The Minerva Remuneration Rating

Minerva’s Market Templates

Australia
Belgium
Bermuda
Brazil
Canada
Cayman Islands
China

Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Guernsey
Hong Kong

India
Indonesia
Ireland
Isle of Man
Israel
Italy
Japan

Jersey
Korea (South)
Malaysia
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway

Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Russian Federation
Singapore
South Africa
Spain

Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
United Kingdom
United States

Call Us

To find out how Minerva can help with your global voting, please get in touch to arrange a personalised demonstration.

Call us on +44 (0)1376 503500 or email us at hello@minerva-analytics.info

Last Updated: 17 October 2019