Theme – Active Investors: The new normal as institutional investors use their capital to secure influence, drive shareholder returns and pursue sustainability.

In February 2018, The Danish Finance Society/CFA Society Denmark held a seminar on the role of proxy advisors as part of the relationship between public companies and institutional investors. However, many institutional investors have since adopted a more active approach to participating in and voting at general meetings of public companies and large pension funds and asset managers continue to demonstrate a willingness to go against the recommendations of company boards when voting at general meetings. These investors are also more often putting forward shareholder proposals that are not supported by company boards, but where voting anyway takes place. More institutional investors are also publicly communicating guidelines for company boards that seek to influence the strategic direction of companies. These actions point to a clear trend that involves pension funds and asset managers adopting an increasingly active approach to the engagement with public companies and perhaps less reliance on proxy advisors.

This seminar will focus on the developments in recent years and “the new normal” in terms of engagement by large pension funds and asset managers and we will be hearing from high profile institutional investors about their experiences from a more active engagement with company boards while Danske Bank will give their perspective on recent developments and provide some feedback on their approach to engaging with institutional investors..

We have therefore invited Benjamin Friedrich, CFA, Director with Investment Stewardship at Blackrock, who will discuss experiences and findings from engaging actively with companies in recent years. Also invited is Anders Schelde, Chief Investment Officer, AkademikerPension, who will present the strategy of AkademikerPension in terms of company engagement and discuss the competences required when engaging as an active investor. Finally, Claus I. Jensen, Head of Investor Relations at Danske Bank A/S and Chairman of the Board at the Danish Investor Relations Society will provide his take on the recent developments regarding shareholder engagement and discuss the strategy of Danske Bank in terms of maintaining a constructive dialogue with shareholders.

The seminar is moderated by Thomas Skovbjerg, CFA, member of the Equities Committee with The Danish Finance Society/CFA Society Denmark.