The GSI Podcast

Robin Powell

Our mission is to provide a successful long-term investment experience, whilst allocating more to companies with a sustainable vision. To find out more, visit our website: https://gsillp.com/

Episodes

  1. Ep 3: Helen Wiggs from ShareAction on shareholder coalitions

    08/25/2022

    Ep 3: Helen Wiggs from ShareAction on shareholder coalitions

    By working together, shareholders can have a much bigger impact on the way businesses are run than they would do on their own. Just because a fund manager is small, that doesn’t mean they can’t make a difference. GSI likes to work in coalition with other other like-minded organisations.. And one of those is ShareAction, a charity that promotes responsible investing and works to improve corporate behaviour on environmental, social and governance issues. In this episode, Robin Powell interviews Helen Wiggs, ShareAction’s Head of Corporate Climate about the valuable work her organisation is doing. +++ Here are the relevant time codes in case there's a specific issue you would like to hear Helen Wiggs’ views on: 1.25 Tell me about ShareAction and how it has developed. 2.25 You say you started on S, but you've moved more over to E as the years have gone by, is that right? 2.45 Is it time to focus attention, not exclusively, but primarily on climate change? 3.25 What is ShareAction's purpose as an organisation? 3.50 Are you genuinely are making a difference? 4.20 I've seen ShareAction describe itself as a critical friend. What do you mean by that? 5.14 What is your own background and how did you come to end up at ShareAction? 6.33 How seriously do you think the City of London takes ESG and climate risk? 7.54 What is ShareAction’s Investor Decarbonisation Initiative? How does it work? 10.10 How important are collaborative coalitions to ShareAction’s work? 11.08 Do you think ESG has made investing a more collaborative environment? 12.31 Can investors be a catalyst for change? 13.40 Tell me a little more about engagement with company boards. What are the different levels of engagement? 15.12 Are companies more responsive to what you’re trying to do? Are they taking more responsibility? 16.38 Do organisations like ShareAction still have a role to play, even as more companies incorporate sustainability into their internal operation? 17.50 Shareholder resolutions are an important part of what you do. How do they work, and how effective are they? 19.06 Could you give a real-world example of shareholder resolutions making a positive difference? 20.10 What has ShareAction been doing within the chemicals sector? 21.28 Is there ever a place for divestment, or is shareholder activism always a better way to go? 23.34 What drives fund managers to be active shareholders? 24.37 One could ask: why are small players like GSI, for example, even thinking about this issue when, compared to the big fund management firms, they have very little influence. What do you say to that? 26.58 Are Vanguard any better or worse than the other big fund managers when it comes to shareholder activism? 28.35 What does “good” look like, from a shareholder activism standpoint? 30.22 How optimistic are you about the role that investors and the industry can play to tackle climate change? Will it make a difference, or is it ultimately out of their hands? 32.10 Do you feel that, just when we need to be focused on the climate, our attentions are being forced elsewhere? For example, towards the crisis in Ukraine and the ongoing inflation issue? +++ Music used: Inspired by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3918-inspired License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

    35 min
  2. Ep 2: Paul Hewitt from Minerva Analytics on active ownership

    06/19/2022

    Ep 2: Paul Hewitt from Minerva Analytics on active ownership

    Welcome to the second episode of the GSI Podcast, which looks at the issue of active ownership. Joining Robin Powell on this episode is Paul Hewitt from Minerva Analytics. Minerva is a Solactive company and is a financial technology firm specialising in proxy voting, and Paul has some very interesting things to say Here are the relevant time codes in case there's a specific issue you would like to hear Paul Hewitt's views on: 1.23 Why is this issue so important to you? And how did you get involved in this work? 1.59 When did you first realise that ordinary investors can actually make a positive difference in the way that companies conduct themselves? 3.14 It’s hard to say whether your personal intervention had any impact, but how did it make you feel to learn that Chesnara’s board had made that change? 4.17 It’s an important principle for Minerva, isn’t it, that every vote counts. Tell us about the company and the services you provide. 6.11 The whole ESG issue is very subjective. We all have our own priorities, whether it’s climate change, social issues or whatever. How does Minerva allow for these differences? 8.08 How comprehensive is the scope of what you cover? Do you focus mainly on environmental sustainability? Or are the S and G in ESG just as important? 9.29 Executive remuneration is a key ESG issue at the moment. I understand that part of Minerva’s philosophy is is that you actually don't mind approving higher remuneration for company executives who are “doing the right thing”. Is that correct? 11.26 The proxy voting sector is growing quite fast in response to the current popularity of sustainable investing. Who are your main competitors? And how do the services you offer at Minerva differ from those of your competitors? 14.15 This is a relatively new sector, but you as a company have been around for quite a long time. Tell me about that and how the landscape has changed since you first came on the scene. 18.50 There's been much discussion about the really big asset managers, like Vanguard and BlackRock, which own massive chunks of publicly listed companies. Why should small asset managers care about proxy voting given that they're likely to be too small to have a huge impact? 17.00 How compatible is active ownership with the systematic investment approach favoured by firms like GSI? 19.53 As a firm you focus on 200 names, or holdings, for each client, rather than try to look at all of them. Why that number? 21.23 How does Minerva come up with proxy voting recommendations? And give an example of a recent recommendation you’ve made. 23.31 The work that you at Minerva do is obviously very data-driven. How can you tell if the data supplied by companies is of good enough quality? 26.08 Thankfully, there's more and more emphasis now on transparency in the asset management industry, and it's something that end investors are increasingly demanding. How do you keep track of voting transparency and reporting? 27.48 How do you see the proxy voting sector developing over the next 30 years, because it is a very fast-changing area, isn’t it? 29.48 What would you say to an institutional investor or a trustee, or the owner of a financial advice business, who is trying to choose a suitable ESG asset manager? Why is it important to choose one that has a proxy voting solution like Minerva? +++ Music used: Inspired by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3918-inspired License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

    33 min
  3. Ep 1: Eoghan Gill from Sustainalytics on ESG ratings

    03/24/2022

    Ep 1: Eoghan Gill from Sustainalytics on ESG ratings

    Welcome to the very first GSI Podcast from Global Systematic Investors, presented by financial journalist and author Robin Powell. In this episode we’re going to look at ESG ratings. What exactly are they? How do ratings agencies form conclusions? And, how reliable are those conclusions from the investor’s point of view? Our guest is Eoghan Gill from Sustainalytics, one of the biggest and most highly respected ESG ratings agencies. if there’s a specific subject you’d like to hear Eoghan talk about, here's a breakdown of the interview, including time codes, so you can skip straight to the answer you're looking for. +++ What exactly is an ESG ratings agency? 2.15 How many different agencies are there? And who are the major players? 3.52 Who are Sustainalytics and in what ways do you differ from the other major agencies? 4.59 Can you give an overview of Sustainalytics’ approach to ESG risk ratings? 5.55 Sustainalytics recently changed its methodology from ESG ratings to ESG risk ratings. What motivated this change and why is the new methodology an improvement? 7.08 Could you explain what “product involvement” means? 9.16 Typically, how regularly is a company reviewed and assigned its ESG risk scores? Are there circumstances when this is done more frequently? 12.18 Why do the data providers come up with such widely differing views over the same company? 14.00 Perceptions of what constitutes an ESG stock change over time, and sometimes quite quickly. For example, the Ukraine crisis has changed the way some people think about the weapons sector. 16.37 Does the fact that ESG ratings often diverge across ratings providers undermine their usefulness to investors? 18.09 To what extent are we seeing the opinions of different ratings agencies being aggregated? 20.06 How does Sustainalytics deal with vastly differing ESG regulatory reporting requirement imposed on companies – esp. developed markets vs emerging markets (but even within developed markets)? 21.58 Would you expect ratings to converge across providers in the future as ESG disclosure requirement increases and standards evolve? 23.50 What impact, if any, does an ESG data provider have in changing corporate behaviour? 25.26 How do you know that the answers a company gives you are true? Are they not just telling you what you want to hear? 27.38 Is there any evidence to link ESG investing with long-term out-performance or even under-performance? 29.59 +++ Music used: Inspired by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3918-inspired License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

    35 min
  • 3 Episodes

About

Our mission is to provide a successful long-term investment experience, whilst allocating more to companies with a sustainable vision. To find out more, visit our website: https://gsillp.com/

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  • Creator
    Robin Powell
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    3
  • Rating
    Clean
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    The GSI Podcast