LONDON: AXA Investment Managers will vote in protest against companies which do not explain how they will boost the number of women on their boards, joining growing demands for workplace diversity. AXA IM, one of Europe’s biggest fund managers and part of French insurer AXA Group, said the move followed five years of unsatisfactory private engagement with firms considered to have too few, if any, female decision-makers.
“We are using our influence as investors through our engagement activities, to address this (diversity) in all markets, developed and emerging,” Shade Duffy, Head of Corporate Governance, said.
“We will vote against all-male boards where there is no communication of plans to seek to appoint women to the board in the near future,” AXA IM’s Duffy added. This reflected its global commitment to improving diversity among the hundreds of companies it owns stakes in, as part of a bigger plan to drive greater innovation and spur higher returns.
As of April 30, the number of ‘oppose’ votes AXA IM has logged in annual shareholder meetings this year has risen to 25 from 1 last year, as a result of the new policy. The protest covers shareholder resolutions, ranging from votes against the Annual Report and Accounts to the re-election of the chairman or the chairman of the nominations committee.
Duffy declined to name the firms AXA IM has opposed, pending communication with the relevant companies and directors.
“Our aspiration here (is) not just about leadership or the visible face of a company — it is about the broader workforce and the progression of women to roles where they can influence strategy and performance,” Duffy said.
News of AXA IM’s voting intentions comes as executives face investors at annual general meetings, a forum for raising concerns about the way a company is run or is performing.
It follows a similar move by Legal & General Investment Management, one of Britain’s biggest money managers, which last month said it would vote against chairs of boards which had fewer than 25 per cent female membership.
— Reuters
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