Border to Coast selects Robeco for voting and engagement services

The £36 billion Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, one of the eight LGPS asset pools, has selected fund manager Robeco for its voting and engagement services.

Border to Coast will use Robeco’s Active Ownership service to fulfil its responsibilities as active owners of listed companies. Robeco votes at shareholder meetings and engages with senior management at listed companies on behalf of its clients to encourage organisations to adopt long-term, sustainable business practices.

Rachel Elwell, CEO at Border to Coast, commented: “We are strong advocates of responsible investment and holding companies to account on environmental, social and governance issues. This is central to Border to Coast’s corporate and investment ethos and a key part of delivering our partner funds’ objectives. We were impressed by Robeco’s breadth of engagement across all asset classes and geographies, especially in emerging markets and Asia, and by their level of detailed research and analysis. It was also important to us that this analysis could be incorporated into our own investment processes and philosophy.”

Peter Walsh, head of Robeco UK added: “We are incredibly pleased to be working with Border to Coast on their active ownership programme. Winning this mandate builds on our solid traction in the local government pension fund sector and will add further momentum to our Active Ownership team and strengthen our local sustainability investing profile.”

Border to Coast added that it wanted a partner with similar values to work with across both internally and externally managed investments. It has recently joined the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum as well as becoming a signatory to Climate Action 100+, and supporter of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures and 30% Club Investor Group.