Allianz Global Investors believes that implementing ESG research into investment models is not enough, as it can miss vital stages of the investment value chain where ESG can have further impact, either upstream before investment decisions are made, or downstream once issuers have been selected for portfolios. To that end AllianzGI also promotes ESG issues through public policy and collective investor initiatives, and through active proxy voting and individual company and issuer engagements.
AllianzGI seeks to demonstrate best practice across the entire investment chain:
AllianzGI participates in corporate, multi-stakeholder initiatives and investor networks to support the development of stable and sustainable financial markets.
AllianzGI has been a signatory of the PRI Initiative since 2007. This initiative is an international network of asset owners and investors working together to put the six Principles for Responsible Investment into practice. Its goal is to understand the implications of sustainability for investors and support signatories to incorporate these issues into their investment decision making and ownership practices.
Via The PRI Clearing House, which is a platform for collaborative engagement initiatives for PRI signatories, AllianzGI has participated in a number of collective engagements.
The Sustainable Palm Oil Investor Working Group (IWG), a group of investment organisations, representing AUM of over $2.55 trillion, supporting the development of a sustainable palm oil industry. This IWG was formed to expand investor interest in this important issue and to provide a coherent and unified investor perspective in support of the development of a sustainable palm oil industry and engage directly with investee companies to encourage adherence to practices that are consistent with the development of a sustainable palm oil industry.
Constant criticism and engagement of plantation companies, as well as investors, NGO’s and clients, has contributed a major shift in attitude among the leading palm oil players. Having previously regarded sustainable practices as a chore, they now promote them as a key differentiating factor in marketing their products to discerning customers.
Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative. This initiative is a platform for exploring how exchanges, in collaboration with investors, regulators, and companies, can develop corporate transparency and promotes stock exchanges to produce Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) reporting guidelines for listed companies.
In October 2015, AllianzGI became lead on the initiative and launched a large-scale collective policy engagement by asking stock exchanges to draft voluntary guidance for issuers on reporting environmental, social and governance (ESG) information. Please see Engagement section for further details on this leading initiative.
Investor statement on Bangladesh garment sector. This initiative aims to implement the internationally recognised core labour standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO). The statement is appealing to the companies to:
Join the Accord on Fire and Building Safety or Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety.
Commit to strengthening local trade unions and a living wage for all workers.
Disclose all their suppliers, and their health and safety programs.
Ensure that appropriate grievance mechanisms, including compensation are in place.
In 2015, AllianzGI renewed its appeal to apparel brands and retailers to respect and protect the human rights of workers in the garment sector of Bangladesh by signing a follow up investor statement one year after the Rana Plaza accident.
In addition, AllianzGI remains active in regular updates from industry bodies to measure progress being made which has been encouraging.
Brands are adding new factories in Bangladesh, indication that Bangladesh remains an important sourcing country.
The number of Accord signatories is still growing (200 vs. 150 in May 2014), now mainly driven by US licensing companies.
The Factory inspections are progressing but supply chain risks remain high.
Real challenges are still ahead as implementation of corrective actions plans (CAP) is just starting.
Financing of remediation: Few Accord members have issued low-cost remediation loans or changed factory payment terms to help implement CAP.
Establishment of worker participation/occupational health and safety committees in climate of political uncertainty.
Rana Plaza Donors Trust Fund reached its goal of $30 million for victims and their families in June 2015.
AllianzGI is a sponsor and work stream contributor of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. As an institution within the University of Cambridge, the mission of this initiative is to inform and support leaders from business to deliver change towards sustainability.
The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership work with individuals, companies, policymakers at national and international levels. By working with them, we are able to access the research capabilities of the University of Cambridge and to benefit from their expertise in developing leaders in sustainability through our executive education programmes.
The Investment Leaders Group (ILG) is a three year project (2013-2016) supported by the leaders of an influential group of investment managers and asset owners to help shift the investment chain towards responsible, long-term value creation and long-term investment returns. As part of this project, AllianzGI is leading a work-stream looking at developing a model that financially models impact of carbon and energy prices and regulations on companies.
In 2015, AllianzGI Japan became a signatory of the Japan’s Stewardship Code, which promotes sustainable growth and sets the stage for investors to engage in more meaningful dialogue and voting practices with companies.
In 2015, AllianzGI became a partner of the Climate Bond Initiative. This initiative is an international, investor-focused not-for-profit. It's the only organisation in the world focusing on mobilizing the $100 trillion bond market for climate change solutions.
Banks, investors and governments were invited to join as Climate Bond Partners to help rapidly grow a market of green and climate bonds by providing research and education and by working towards standardization of this specific market.
Climate Bond Initiative partners have access to a green bond screening methodology tool, which provides detailed science based assessment of the projects financed by every Green Bond issued and the environmental impact these projects have. This assessment also follows up on information over the life of the bond.
As a member of the SIF (Social Investment Forum) since 2009, AllianzGI sponsored the French SIF-PRI European Research Award and participated in the jury award in 2015, along with 9 other asset owners and asset managers. The award celebrated its 10th anniversary this year and AllianzGI has been a sponsor since the beginning. This award was launched to foster academic research on subjects in Finance and Sustainability. Every year, the jury awards 4 types of works: a master, a PhD, a grant and an article.
This year, the 4 awardees had different origins, which illustrates the globalization of sustainable finance topic. Awarded works were on various topics:
Research Article: « Does Corporate Social Responsibility Lead to Superior Financial Performance? A Regression Discontinuity Approach »
PhD « Finance and Society: On the Foundations of Corporate Social Responsibility »
Master Thesis « Divestment of fossil fuel equities, its financial implications, and alternative asset allocation strategy »
Research Grants: « CSR within morally objectionable businesses: Can what's done be undone? »
The award aims to raise the academic research on subjects in Finance and Sustainability.
AllianzGI renewed in 2015 its sponsorship of the Sustainable Finance and Responsible Investment Chair for 2016-2018. This Chair was created in 2007 and we have sponsored since the beginning. It combines researchers from Toulouse School of Economics and Polytechnique on the topic of responsible finance. It is sponsored by 12 asset owners and asset managers in order to encourage interaction between researchers and practitioners. Main areas of research for this period will be:
ESG factors and the performance of small and mid-cap companies.
Sovereign credit ratings and interest rates.
How governance affects firm value.
The measurement of ESG performance and risk: qualitative ratings or quantitative metrics?
Institutional Investors as Active Owners.
Similar to the French SIF-PRI European Research Award, this collaborative engagement is also fostering academic research in the ESG field.One additional benefit includes the fact that we are able to work closely with the researchers. We therefore decide the themes to be studied collaboratively with them via regular updates on how research is developed.
Initiative: UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF) Description: Promotion of responsible investment and other forms offinance that support sustainable economic development enhance quality of life and safeguard the environment. Also seeking to ensure that individual and institutional investors can reflect their values in their investments.
Initiative: Forum per la Finanza Sostenibile (FFS) Description: Promoting a culture of social responsibility in the practice of financial investment in Italy.
Initiative: German, Austrian and Swiss Sustainable Investment Forum (FNG) Description: Promoting sustainable investment.
Initiative: Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Description: Promotion of open and accountable management of natural resources. It seeks to strengthen government and company systems, inform public debate, and enhance trust.
Initiative: European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) Description: European responsible Investment Working Group. Representative Association for the European investment management industry.
Initiative: Association Francaise de la Gestion financiere (AFG) Description: Promoting the interests of the French asset management industry, both for collective and for discretionary portfolio management.
Initiative: Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA) Description: Organization dedicated to working with investors, companies and regulators in the implementation of effective corporate governance practices throughout Asia.
Initiative: International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) Description: Influencing policy as a reliable source of practical experience on high standards of corporate governance.
Initiative: Sustainability Accounting Standards Board Infrastructure Sector Working Group (SASB) Description: Each sector report is produced with guidance from a working group of investors that inputs into the drafting of the guidelines and final publication.
Jeremy Kent, SRI Global Equities
Evaluating the fundamentals of a business has not changed remarkably in many decades. Michael Porter introduced the eponymous five forces model more than 35 years ago which is still used in assessing industry and company dynamics. Integrating ESG analysis in to the investment process does not require a complete transformation of fundamental analysis, but building on frameworks that have shown to be effective over time.
For example, the AllianzGI Global Sustainability strategy integrates ESG analysis across three lenses of company evaluation: quality, growth and valuation.
Quality
Identifying companies that perform well on material ESG issues can provide valuable insight on the ability of the business to sustain a competitive advantage and profits over time. An industrial company with fewer injuries and fatalities than peers indicates cost savings that can persist over long periods of time as the company may demonstrate fewer stoppages in work, less legal penalties and lower staff turnover as a safe environment should be attractive to employees. The AllianzGI ESG Ratings provide a signal of the companies that are performing well on material issues within their sector and inform the quality assessment of the business. The AllianzGI ESG ratings also helped to identify companies that have average performance today, but show prospects for improvement in the future which should be rewarded by the market as quality improves.
Growth
Environmental and social issues can impact just about any business over the long-term and the governance structures a management team must operate within will certainly have a bearing on how a company grows over time. By identifying the long-term risks such as continuously increasing environmental regulations or opportunities such as the evolving demand trends of millennial consumers, better insight can be achieved on the growth assumptions used for evaluating holdings.
Valuation
The final component of the analysis incorporates the insight gathered assessing the quality and growth aspects of the business. Our process enables us to identify sustainable quality where others may not observe and seek to avoid exposures long-term risks or managers that are misaligned from shareholders. As disclosure on material ESG issues continues to grow, the ability to integrate this information in to analysis and valuation improves.
The outcome of this investment approach should lead to generation of competitive long term returns for clients and a positive impact on society.
Anne-Claire Abadie, Christine Clet-Messadi and Isabel Reuss, SRI European Equities
We live in a changing world and as Asset Managers we have the duty to assess risks that will impact not only our generation but also future generations. Over the last 15 Years the SRI Conviction team has adapted to new challenges and incorporated these into their investment process. Our long term view of investment has led us to engage in 2001, in a reflection on the limits of a purely financial approach and adopt an SRI approach integrating ESG issues into our investment process.
We have over time created a unique proprietary methodology of analysis that enables us to incorporate sustainability aspects and at the same time provides us with the flexibility to evolve over time.
The issue of climate change poses risks and opportunities for investors, which are not necessarily considered within a SRI approach. This requires further reflection as to how to best integrate the notion of impact of investments in the context of the energy transition. It is therefore necessary to go beyond the SRI approach to integrate climate change in an active investment solution. Our strategy seeks to address two issues; one is to assess the exposure to financial risks related to the energy transition, the second one is how to meet the challenges of financing this transition and the necessary reallocation of capital. Reallocation of capital and climate change policy/regulation will be the issues in the future. We need to capture these opportunities and avoid the risks inherent in them in our investments, hence our active, qualitative approach. The strategy is geared towards incorporating both a risk minimization and an opportunities optimization, to provide us with the answers to the transition funding issue.
We concentrate on three dimensions in the selection of our investments:
Best performers: Focus on companies that promote best practices through "climate" specific indicators by sector.
Best efforts: Focus on companies that show dynamic progress in their climate performance, the so called future Best Performers.
Best Solutions: Focus on companies offering solutions for a low carbon economy. Solutions can be products or services that allow other companies or consumers to reduce their climate impact, or technologies without which the transition to a low carbon economy would not be possible.
As responsible investors we need to accompany and encourage the climate transition. This is the reason why we concentrate on seizing opportunities and integrating the notion of impact in our investments, at the same time as, applying a flexible methodology able to evolve over time.
Julien Bras and Hervé Dejonghe, SRI Fixed Income
Why do we have to seize this opportunity?
Addressing the climate change and energy transition challenge will require major investments which cannot be matched by public funding. This creates a Green Finance opportunity which is estimated to be EUR1 trillion per year. Given the current budget constraints faced by governments throughout the world, it is difficult to see how green financing needs could be met without the mobilization of private finance, private savings and private actors.
Since the UN Climate Summit in New-York in 2014, and in the months preceding COP21 in Paris in 2015, there has been a growing number of corporates, banks, insurance companies, and institutional investors who have committed to grow their investments in Green and Climate solutions.
Asset managers, being allocators of capital, also have to seize this Green Finance opportunity. This opportunity also gives them a responsibility. In the world of tomorrow, deciding to allocate our client’s funds to a project places a fiduciary duty on us to not only provide a solid risk/return, but also select investments which provide long term sustainable solutions that benefit society and the environment.
How can we seize the opportunity and what are the conditions for success?
A growing number of assets owners have been divesting from carbon intensive industries namely coal. Our parent company, Allianz SE announced their intention to divest from coal in Paris at COP21 climate conference. The second step beyond divestment will be to focus on policies and practices which have a positive, direct impact on the environment and society. However, the biggest challenge especially for the green bond market is defining what is sustainable and whether it generates a positive impact.
Efforts are currently underway to develop a clear definition and set of standards for this new ‘green’ asset class. At AllianzGI, we strongly support this work and are supportive of both the Green Bond Principles and with the Climate Bond Initiative which we signed up to in 2015.
At AllianzGI, our engagement maintains a focused link to investment by seeking to reduce ESG material risks for investee companies.
We have a two pronged approach:
In relation to companies, we define engagement as more than just a company dialogue to gather information. Through engagement we actively seek to encourage companies to improve ESG performance to underpin their long-term business prospects. Our engagement involves two-way interaction with a company through presenting a viewpoint, seeking change and monitoring and documenting results.
Depending on outcomes and progress over time (or lack thereof), AllianzGI may decide among the following escalation options:
a) High level, bilateral meetings between AllianzGI and company management or board members
b) Addressing a letter to company management and/or the company board
c) Collaboration with other investors
d) Voting against resolutions at the company’s AGM
Engagement is integrated into the investment process through our voting activity, fundamental analysis and stock recommendations and ESG analysis, ESG ratings and ESG Investment Drivers.
Investor – Company Letter
We were successful in recruiting 100 signatures from asset owners, asset managers and companies representing over $10 trillion in assets under management to join our campaign. The letter was sent to 70 exchanges, encouraging them to create more transparent and efficient capital markets.
It is increasing clear that ESG data is in high demand and a targeted campaign to introduce voluntary guidance was a logical starting point and specifically timed to coincide with the launch of the SSE Model Guidance on Reporting ESG Information, A Voluntary Tool for Stock Exchanges to Guide Issuers.
Results
Our dialogue with exchanges has been well received, resulting in a positive response rate from over 50 exchanges (70% of global exchanges). 15 new exchanges have committed to producing guidance by the end of 2016. These 15 join the 8 SSE Partner Exchanges that committed at the launch of the Model Guidance bringing the total to 23 by year-end.
Progress of Exchanges 2004-2016
By the end of 2016, 38 exchanges will have voluntary or mandatory ESG reporting guidance.
Next steps
AllianzGI’s engagement with stock exchanges does not conclude with the results of the shareholder letter. As the lead member of the SSE the next step is to convene the exchanges that have committed to creating robust guidance or updating an existing guidance to share best practices in an effort to encourage consistency.
This initiative was set up in 2009, with the purpose to promote the development of the Bond markets for climate change solutions by providing research and education and by working towards standardization of this specific market. A new green bond screening methodology was presented in 2015. This tool will provide partners a detailed science based assessment of the projects financed by every Green Bond issued and the environmental impact these projects have. This assessment will also include follow up information over the life of the bond management and $400 billion in market capitalisation.
The investor community has long promoted the principle of proportionality between capital invested and voting rights, and of the Board neutrality of listed companies during takeover bid periods. France’s Florange Law reverses these principles by automatically allocating double voting rights only to shareholders holding registered shares (not a common practice for institutional investors), and by authorizing the Board, in the event of a takeover, to take all measures to frustrate the bid (undermining the freedom of the market). These provisions are deemed detrimental to the rights of minority shareholders.
The new Law allows company's articles of association to depart from these provisions pursuant to a vote in 2015 AGM by restoring the principle of ‘one share–one vote’ and by requiring that any measure affecting the capital during the offer period must be authorized in advance by the general meeting.
AllianzGI believes that ‘one share-one vote’ is a cornerstone of good corporate governance. It makes all shareholders equal and gives them an incentive to exercise their ownership rights. Equally, shareholders must be allowed to benefit from the value creation associated with takeover bidding freedom.
We signed a letter asking investee companies to re-establish the one share-one vote principle in their bylaws & the Board neutrality rule in case of M&A.
Engagement targets: Air Liquide, BNP Paribas, Cap Gemini, Credit Agricole, EDF, GDF Suez, L’Oreal, Orange, Renault, Unibail-Rodamco, Veolia, Vinci, Vivendi.
The report alleged that migrant workers from poorer neighbouring countries were being exposed to forced labour on Thai fishing boats forced to work for no pay and under threat of extreme violence. The fishing boats produce fishmeal which goes into the production of prawns supplied to the supermarkets. Two of the biggest supermarkets in Europe were highlighted as having supply chains exposed to forced labour.
We engaged with both retailers on the topic, increasing our engagement focus on the retailer with the bigger exposure to the issue.
Our engagement objective was to firstly obtain a clear understanding of the issue on the ground and gauge companies’ responses. Subsequent follow on engagements evidenced that action was being taken both across its own operations and at the industry level on a consistent basis. This gave us the confidence to review our ESG ratings for the supermarket retailers.
Our engagement objective was to find the sustainable opportunities for this company as they are providers of many products which enable energy savings and renewables. We also wanted the company to have real targets (quantitative and qualitative) so that the company could be publically accountable to performance against their ambitions and to get more detail on the role of their products and services in achieving a shift to a global sustainable economy, which would include looking at the positive impact and not just the reduction of the negative impact.
We therefore asked the company to focus on efficient CSR reporting including providing transparency on key risks such as cyber security and water saving potential of their products and services.
Subsequently, AllianzGI were invited to join the Company’s Sustainability Report Review Panel in order to engage with the company on the above topics. We analysed the company’s risk matrix and provided feedback on the importance of embedding a robust cyber security risk management strategy. The company then indicated that they will be publishing its first sustainability report in 2016.
We sent a letter to the CEO and Chairman recommending the Company to review the existing Board’s skills to ensure they continue to support and adequately reflect their future growth ambitions, questioning whether two of the three Board members could be considered to be truly independent given both their tenure was greater than 12 years. We indicated that we would be strongly supportive of the Board if it were to nominate an additional independent Board member to improve board diversity and skills set, which we viewed as necessary to support the company’s future growth ambitions.
The company took into consideration our letter by adding this topic on the agenda for the board meeting and we expect this topic to be included in the agenda for the following Annual General Meeting in 2016.
On Corporate Governance
We engaged with the company raising concerns on board independence in advance of its Annual General Meeting (AGM). Post our engagement, we noted significant improvements had been made on board independence, remuneration transparency, transparency on board nomination criteria, disclosure on board committee members, director attendance at board meetings and clarity on non-audit related fees.
On Supply Chain
The company faced controversies regarding own and outsourced production especially related to compensation and collective bargaining. We met with company representatives from across the business at company headquarters raising our concerns. Following our engagement, the company indicated that it will work on improving ‘fair compensation’ and will begin to integrate environmental principles into its supply chain assessments.
AllianzGI engaged with the company raising concerns around the deal and specifically the lack of robust governance practices which allowed the deal to happen. Our concerns were reflected at the company’s AGM and were officially approved in a full board meeting. As a result, the company:
Established a Governance Committee with four members all of whom are independent.
Appointed a dedicated independent non-executive director to represent minority shareholders’ interests.
Established an internal procedure which requires sign off from the Governance Committee on major investment decisions.
Committed to enhancing transparency and reporting, starting with providing shareholders with timely audited financial accounts.
Following up engagement with the company, we provided further feedback on the importance of:
Having a Governance Committee responsible for reviewing and signing off major investments and capital deployment decisions on shareholder’s behalf.
Board of directors and tenure of outspoken independent directors (in Korea, Independent Non-Executive Directors who disagree with management tend to get replaced very quickly i.e. after 1 year).
Enhance communications with minority shareholders: Plan to have annual roadshow dedicated to Corporate Governance.
Bundled voting of directors: AllianzGI expressed that we’d like to vote on directors individually, in line with AllianzGI PV guidelines.
Publishing of audited accounts: Reinforced AllianzGI expectations to see auditor opinion when accounts are published ahead of AGM. We referenced collective engagement that AllianzGI joined in 2014 with 26 Korean companies.
Korean companies' corporate governance is below global standard partly because commercial law allows it (i.e. Korean law allows certain decisions to be made by emergency board meeting only without shareholder approval).
Until there's drastic change to regulatory system, Korean companies' corporate governance could remain below global standard. By identifying and engaging with companies that are willing to improve we contribute to promote corporate governance best practices implementation throughout the country.
AllianzGI takes its obligation to exercise voting rights attached to shares in its investment portfolios very seriously. We see it as our fiduciary duty to cast votes at shareholder and bondholder meetings of our investee companies in such a way that preserves and enhances the value of our client investments.
Our proxy voting activities cover all major markets, and we encourage improved levels of disclosure by companies and enhancement of voting infrastructure by custodians and agents globally. Given the increasing importance of social and environmental impacts of corporate activity to our clients, we seek to tailor our approach to reflect clients’ requirements.
AllianzGI has developed Global Corporate Governance Guidelines and Proxy Voting Policy, which provide a framework for analysis and are reviewed on a regular basis. The guidelines set out our general approach to the most significant and frequent issues that arise at shareholder meetings globally, and are applied consistently for all clients save where a specific client has requested that Allianz Global Investors applies a voting approach other than our own.
AllianzGI employs ISS as its voting agent, and ensures that ISS applies its voting policy to all routine non-contentious proposals. AllianzGI devotes its time and effort to the scrutiny of more contentious issues, including resolutions proposed at Extraordinary General Meetings of our investee companies.
In 2015, AllianzGI voted at a total of 4,556 of shareholder and bondholder meetings, covering 49,601 resolutions (see chart 2 for regional breakdown).
AllianzGI voted against management at 43% of all meetings and in respect of 11% of all resolutions (see chart 1). The USA, United Kingdom, Japan, China and Germany represent AllianzGI’s largest markets in terms of the number of meetings covered by our proxy voting activities (see chart 2)
Board and director elections, remuneration and capital related authorities accounted for almost 3/4th of all votable management proposals and of AllianzGI’ votes against management (see chart 3). Notably, we voted against management proposals at 24% of preferred shareholder and bondholder meetings. AllianzGI did not support 20% of all remuneration-related proposals, 15% of capital related authorities, and 11% of proposals for reorganizations and mergers. We also voted against 8% of board and directors related proposals.
AllianzGI voted on 1,014 shareholder proposals, supporting 61% of all shareholder resolutions. Notably, we voted in support of 56% of board and director related proposals, 70% of remuneration related proposals, 64% of proposals aimed at improving corporate governance standards, 71% of proposals seeking environmental and health & safety improvements, and 52% of proposals addressing human rights issues (see chart 4).
The ESG team scrutinise contentious resolutions at the agenda of AGMs and EGMs and issue appropriate voting recommendations. Portfolio managers have a process in place that allows them to monitor vote recommendations for AGMs and EGMs of companies held in their portfolios in a timely manner, so that they can discuss the orientation of the final vote decision with the ESG team before the vote is cast. After portfolio managers and the ESG team provide analysis, a collegial decision is taken and sent out to the Proxy Voting Officer so that the vote can be cast.
Vote against
AllianzGI voted against management on re-electing Denis Kessler as Director as he has been on the Board over the period in which BNP breached regulation in the case of US sanctions and to that end did not fulfil his fiduciary duty. Mr. Kessler, who is also the chair of the Audit committee, has also been on the board for 12 years and therefore is not considered independent.
The Company contacted us regarding the election of current CEO as new Chair of the supervisory board. Based on AllianzGI guidelines, we voted against it. Our reason for this was that it was intended that he would become chairman of the supervisory board following his election, which is a breach of market standards and best practice recommendations.
AllianzGI voted against management on the removal of the Vice CEO’s defined benefit pension due to the inclusion of the renewal of the termination agreement and non-complete clause in his replacement package.
We also voted against the compensation amendment to CEO and Vice CEO’s remuneration as no compelling explanations for the amendments on the remuneration policy related to variable components were given.
AllianzGI voted against the nomination of the three non-independent directors to the Board as well as on approving remuneration of Directors and maximum Board remuneration. The company did not submit a remuneration policy as a separate item for the binding vote at the 2015 AGM. In accordance with Article 529 of the Corporate Enterprises Act, if the remuneration report is approved, it means binding approval for financial years 2015, 2016 and 2017. Since 2011, AllianzGI has been voting against the remuneration policy due to insufficient disclosure on short-term incentives and termination benefits under the new contract of the CEO.
Since 2010, AllianzGI has voted against (when on the ballot) the annual maximum board remuneration as the excessive Board retainer fees exceed market standards.
AllianzGI voted against approving Auditors' Special Report on Related-Party Transactions Regarding New Transactions as the severance arrangement granted to the CEO of the company is not deemed totally in line with best market practices in view of the concerns on the triggering events and the stringency of the performance criteria.
Advisory vote on Compensation of CEO was against as well due to the low level of disclosure, notably on the bonus policy.
Elect Directors - Against re-elections of non-independent nominees given the lack of independence at the board level (33 percent including employee and French State representatives but only 45 percent excluding employee and French State representatives)
Authorizing Capitalization of Reserves of Up to EUR 2 Billion for Bonus Issue or Increase in Par Value - it could be used during a takeover period while the company belongs to the CAC40 index.
Approving allocation of income and dividends of EUR 0.50 per Share - there is no sufficiently convincing rationale for reducing shareholders' return given the company's current financial position and investments.
Approving Stock Dividend Program (Cash or Shares) – a vote against this item was warranted considering the absence of support from the company and the lack of rationale provided by the employee shareholders fund.
Authorizing board to participate in the repurchase of shares sold by the French State – no in shareholders’ interest.