Voting Engagement
Exercising our voting rights at company meetings is one of our most powerful tools as shareholders. In 2024, we voted against at least one resolution at 42% of the company meetings we attended.
We opposed management on issues such as excessive executive pay, auditor reappointments where we had governance concerns, and inadequate climate transition plans. Epworth uses voting to reinforce our engagement messages. In situations where a company has not been responsive on an issue, we will vote against management on relevant resolutions to signal our dissatisfaction.
Voting reports are available on request.
Director elections gave rise to the second largest quantity of against votes. Votes against directors can be triggered by a variety of issues including ethnic and gender diversity; climate responsiveness; and overcommitment among others. We voted against 20% of director elections in the quarter
Voting is carried out at all UK and global company meetings, in which Epworth invests, in line with a collaborative CIG voting policy. The voting template is implemented by the CIG’s service provider, ISS (Institutional Shareholder Services). A full voting report is available on request.