At Candriam, we are active owners and debtholders. We exercise our rights when we believe action can enhance long-term value for our clients and ultimate beneficiaries. We prefer to be partners and accompany issuers in their journey as they continue to improve environmental, social, and governance transparency and practice.

Occasionally, we may feel the need to divest a holding. More often, we remain invested and engage for action, because we believe in the capacity of our investees to achieve sustainable performance. The middle-of-the-pack issuers are frequently the ones who are open to investor requests, open to learning new practices, and offer a reasonable chance of improvement. You can find more in the Foreword to this year’s report.

This means holding to our principles, but constantly adapting to an ever-changing world. For example, in 2023 we began to pre-declare a greater number of our voting intentions to provide transparency to stakeholders, and in some instances, as a means of escalation.

The core tenets of our voting policy are shareholder rights, equal treatment of shareholders, board accountability, and transparency and integrity of financial statements. We have held to these central principles since we established them in 2003. Yet, we have updated our public voting policy every year since then.

Our 2023 Annual Engagement and Voting Report describes four prevalent engagement themes– Governance, Climate, Biodiversity, and the ongoing need for Human Rights. With a history of active investing, we have long worked to establish consistency among our engagement efforts, voting decisions, ESG analysis, and investment strategies.