Cazenove Capital publishes its 2023 Engagement Report
Cazenove Capital’s 2023 Engagement Report looks at some of the active ownership activity undertaken in the past year. We believe that by understanding how a company or manager is considering all its stakeholders, alongside traditional financial analysis, can help us better assess a company or strategy's long-term investment potential.
Cazenove Capital’s 2023 Wealth Management Engagement Report exclusively details the company’s latest engagement activities that have been undertaken by the high-net-worth wealth management business of Schroders over the last year.
As significant investors in third party managed funds, we believe it is our responsibility to use our influence to engage with managers and companies to better understand their approach and influence change where necessary.
The Report documents how we’ve worked with the managers and companies that we invest in and examines how these businesses integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into their practices.
Active ownership is key to our Climate Transition Action Plan, which outlines how we plan to transition to net zero by 2050 or sooner.
Our engagement themes are aligned with the “Schroders Engagement Blueprint”, which focuses on sustainability issues that we determine to be most material to the long-term value of our investments.
Key highlights from the 2023 Engagement Report:
- In our core models, 100% of managers were engaged with on net zero.
- Six fund managers confirmed an intention to set a net zero commitment specific to their funds as a result of our engagement.
- In 2023, we wrote to 93 asset manages outlining our recommendations on voting more sustainably in AGM season. Over 75% of the managers responded with 17 managers providing evidence of how they are meeting our recommendations.
- Over 200 asset managers were surveyed in our annual firm-level questionnaire. Of the managers identified as “laggards” on ESG matters, 40% were engaged with over 2023 to improve ESG capabilities and practices. We aim to engage with the remaining laggard managers in H1 2024, ahead of releasing the 2024 ESG Survey.
- We made 14 targeted engagements focusing on human rights across our core and sustainable models.
Chloe Mallo, Investment Director, Cazenove Capital, commented:
"Our main priority when engaging is to help share best practise to encourage the development of a company, manager, or strategy’s ESG approach and credentials and influence change where necessary. Approached thoughtfully, we believe active engagement can help to strengthen the long-term competitiveness and value of the assets we invest in. Active ownership is therefore a key element of the value we believe we can bring to our clients.”