For Australian investments, in addition to biannual meetings with the management of portfolio companies following financial results and meetings with company Chairmen before the company AGM, Maple-Brown Abbott have a policy to conduct a minimum of an additional ten ESG engagement meetings with portfolio companies. These meetings provide a further forum to engage with companies on their ESG performance and advocate for improvement in ESG performance and disclosure. These dedicated ESG engagement meetings are prioritised each year with consideration to the materiality of ESG factors identified in the investment analysis and decision-making process.
For our self-managed International investments, the Company generally meets with the management of portfolio companies during company road shows and analyst company visits and at conferences. The ESG related engagement at these meetings tends to focus on Corporate Governance.
The Company also engages with companies, and collaborates with our peers, outside these scheduled meetings, when it is in our clients’ long term interest to do so. The Company does not use an external engagement service provider.