Responsible investment

Oldfield Partners are committed to sustainable and responsible investment across the board.

Our view

As fundamental long-term contrarian value investors, we consider it an important part of company analysis to assess corporate governance, as well as the management of social and environmental issues. This forms part of our risk assessment of business fundamentals. Our starting point is not to exclude any particular sectors or countries unless excluded in individual managed accounts by the clients concerned. However we do avoid companies about which we have serious governance concerns unless it is clear that such concerns have been or are being dealt with by management and any shortcomings have been addressed.

Once we become shareholders, we continue to monitor any relevant ESG issues, and to engage with the company where appropriate. Collaboration with our clients informs our priorities. Our approach to stewardship can take time to deliver outcomes, however, as value investors we believe a patient, yet persistent approach is more likely to deliver meaningful change over the long run.

OP is a signatory to the UK Stewardship Code as well as a signatory to UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).

Stewardship

We will engage with a company’s board and/or management where there are stewardship-related weaknesses and we feel that our interaction with the company may have an influence. We ordinarily hope to address our stewardship concerns through discussions that we hold with company representatives within the ordinary routine of interaction. However, we may decide to extend our engagement activity and/or escalate specific areas of concern. Such decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, influenced by factors such as our view of the materiality of the issue. The Stewardship Committee monitors the progress of our engagement efforts, providing useful oversight.

Voting

It is OP’s policy to vote all shares where we are entitled to do so. OP employs the services of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) to manage the voting of proxies and assist our decision-making. Proxy voting is a valuable mechanism that enables us to provide feedback to company management. Our starting point is one of collaboration. On material issues, where we differ from management’s recommendation, we look to engage with the company on the matter. Voting against management is typically used as part of an escalation strategy. Where we perceive the vote to be meaningful, we ensure we provide feedback to the company on our rationale. Supported by the concentrated nature of our strategies, we adopt this case-by-case approach across environmental, social and governance considerations. The main analyst leads on voting recommendations with the investment thesis and additional engagement activity in mind. Therefore, whilst ISS provide analysis and voting recommendations for each proposal, where there are company-specific factors which lead us to take a different view, we vote accordingly.

Literature

Full details of firm wide proxy voting can be made available on request.

Patience, patience, patience

OP