HALF of Scottish savers and investors want more information about how companies are held to account in shareholder votes.
The research from YouGov is published to mark Ownership Day, a new initiative to promote active stewardship and shareholder rights aimed at improving the long-term value of companies.
It comes a year after the "shareholder spring" saw a wave of rebellion at annual meetings, focused on executive pay but often triggered by underlying discontent with management.
The research found 47% of UK savers and investors are concerned about active voting at this year's annual meetings. The most important issues are executive pay (54%), human rights abuses in supply chains (35%), and "ensuring that companies pay their fair share of UK tax" (48%).
Penny Shepherd, chief executive of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association, one of the initiative's backers, said tax avoidance had become a major concern for the public.
She said: "It is clear that many want to see a continuation of last year's shareholder spring with investment managers being active owners on these issues."
Another backer is Aviva Investors, part of the insurer that a year ago found itself on the receiving end of one of the biggest shareholder protest votes on pay, which helped trigger the departure of chief executive Andrew Moss.
A report by Sir George Cox, published last week by the Labour Party, criticised shareholders generally for failing to play an active role, to which the CBI responded that pension funds were "increasingly stepping up to their responsibilities".
A 2010 survey by FairPensions found that 41% of asset managers did not make any information on their ownership activities publicly available, though more than 260 investment institutions – managing £825 billion – have now signed up to the UK Stewardship Code.
Former Standard Life manager Colin Melvin, chief executive of Hermes Equity Ownership Services, said companies' experience of talking to their big shareholders has been poor.
"They are talking to people interested in gathering information to make a better trading decision – that is the problem. But there is a change happening."
He added: "The Kay review identified all the problems, but the solutions were somewhat lacking in a couple of areas. He did not properly explore the international dimension, the need to get the big owners of companies internationally properly mobilised and engaged."
Basing shareholder rights on length of share ownership would not work, Mr Melvin said, as it would inhibit the market.
"Our fundamental philosophy is that companies which behave well make much better long-term investments," he said.
Meanwhile, consumer research by the Defined Contribution Investment Forum, featuring seven big asset managers, has found a big majority of respondents (77%) claiming that they would prefer a social investment fund over a conventional pension fund, and 44% that they would be prepared to accept a smaller pot at retirement.
Andrew Dickson, forum chairman and investment director at Standard Life Investments, said: "These findings present an opportunity for the pensions industry to engage with members on the design of their defined contribution pension investments and restore greater trust in pension savings."
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