2023 highlights report

The UK Financial Reporting Council has confirmed that Newton has met the standards of reporting required under the UK Stewardship Code, which sets high stewardship standards for asset owners and asset managers.

 

Engagement highlights

We engage with issuers to constructively challenge management and boards around financially material aspects of their decision making where we believe it can result in improved long-term financial outcomes for our clients.

Voting highlights

We seek to add value through voting over the long term. In general, ours is an active approach to voting that seeks to:

Align interests

Align the interests of a company’s management and board of directors with those of the company’s shareholders.

Promote accountability

Promote the accountability of a company’s management to its board of directors, as well as the accountability of the board of directors to the company’s shareholders.

Uphold shareholder rights

Uphold the rights of a company’s shareholders to effect change by voting on those matters submitted to shareholders for approval.

Promote adequate disclosure

Promote adequate disclosure about a company’s business operations and financial activity.

 

Advocacy and helping shape best practice

Newton takes an active role in promoting well-functioning financial markets, with the ultimate aim of providing our clients with greater confidence in financial markets, and helping foster financial institutions that are accountable and responsible to investors.

Newton manages a variety of investment strategies. How ESG analysis is integrated into Newton’s strategies depends on the asset classes and/or the particular strategy involved. Newton does not currently view certain types of investments as presenting ESG risks and opportunities and believes it is not practicable to evaluate such risks and opportunities for certain other investments. Where ESG is considered, other attributes of an investment may outweigh ESG considerations when making investment decisions.

The use of engagement themes may vary depending on the asset class. Engagement themes have been identified to reflect the issues we believe to be most material to companies’ risks and opportunity sets in the long term. However, other topics may be considered and have greater weighting when engaging with companies. Newton will make investment decisions that are not based on engagement themes and may conclude that other attributes of an investment outweigh Newton’s engagement strategy.