As an asset manager, we invest the funds entrusted by our clients in publicly listed stocks. We bear responsibilities and duties as a capital market participant and as a client fiduciary.
To fulfill these responsibilities and duties, we require that the companies held in our portfolios adequately consider their shareholder's interests, and efficiently utilize their capital.
These principles define our basic approach to corporate governance for the companies in our portfolios.
What we expect of the publicly listed companies
The function of capital markets is to enable the efficient allocation of capital resources. Therefore all market participants who benefit from the capital market are supposed to be responsible for maintaining and developing a healthy market. Specifically, publicly listed companies are expected to maximally utilize capital obtained through capital markets and at the same time we are expected to monitor this progress as an investor.
As a consequence, we require companies held in our portfolios to conduct business with respect for shareholder's interests and utilize the capital entrusted to them. In particular, we expect such companies to include the below points in their business objectives and to carry out corporate governance effectively.
How does the company intend to
- Create added value in response to demand and yield profits in the long term.
- Adopt appropriate capital and employment policy appropriately and distribute gains from added value.
- Provide investors with fair, accurate, and timely disclosure to allow them to make appropriate forecasts on earnings
- Conduct itself ethically and in a way that fulfills its various social responsibilities, including for environmental issues.
Our approach for monitoring companies held in our portfolios
We expect invested companies to be managed properly in line with the above listed objectives. If there is any company which does not utilize its capital adequately, we will request improvement measures.
We believe these actions are within our fiduciary duty of loyalty as well as carry out our responsibility as a market participant.
As a part of these actions, we execute our proxy voting rights on behalf of our clients in line with the principles defined here in, unless otherwise specified in the relevant investment management agreements.
