Price Point - In Brief

ESG: A Spectrum of Engagement Intensity

Executive Summary

At T. Rowe Price, engagement, proxy voting activities and assessment of a broad range of investment considerations (including environmental and social issues) are integrated into our equity investment process. In our view, the following questions are, at their core, investment issues:

  • Who represents shareholders on a company’s board?
  • What drives the executive incentive program?
  • How robust are shareholders’ rights at the company?
  • How is the company managing its environmental risks, human resources, facilities, stakeholder relations and long-term access to critical resources?

Based on this view, our engagement program is driven by portfolio management and is supported by the expertise of our industry-focused analysts and our in-house specialists in corporate governance and sustainability. Because our engagement priorities are so tightly connected to our investment views on a company, we conduct privately our company-level engagement activities. (By contrast, we tend to work collaboratively with other shareholders on a policy level, such as advocating with regulators for better disclosure or stronger shareholder rights.)

LIGHT ENGAGEMENT

On one side of the barbell, we hold hundreds of short, direct conversations with companies over the course of each year, focused on issues that may fall outside the scope of our analysts’ normal, ongoing due diligence meetings with companies. More than 80 percent of these engagements are conducted via conference call and do not involve board members. Typically, the parties involved are the company’s General Counsel and subject-matter expert, our industry analyst, and our governance or sustainability specialists. The purpose of these conversations is for us to gather information about a specific topic of an environmental, social or governance nature. It may be a general exchange of views on the topic, or it may be a conversation centered on an upcoming vote.

Over time, we have found that these brief exchanges add to our overall mosaic of information about the company. We develop relationships with our counterparts within these companies, which leads to more opportunities to discuss the issues we see as most important. The frequency of contact — generally once or twice a year — gives us a good sense of the pace of change with which the company is addressing any concerns we’ve raised.

For example, we frequently initiate short-term engagements with companies when we discover that they are poorly rated by our external research providers who specialize in environmental and social risks. Often, we learn that a poor relative ranking by these third-party services is driven more by spotty disclosure than by poor risk management. We find that small- and mid-cap companies rarely receive feedback from their investors about their disclosure on corporate responsibility issues, so they devote few resources to reporting or engagement on those issues. As a consequence, they are poorly rated by external research providers. In our experience, this problem is often easily addressed.

Opening Quote Our engagement program is driven by portfolio management and is supported by the expertise of our industry-focused analysts and our in-house specialists in corporate governance and sustainability. Closing Quote
HEAVY ENGAGEMENT

The other side of the barbell, for us, is characterized by a deep investment of time and resources. These engagements are intense, indepth exchanges with a company’s management or board, often extending over more than a year. Typically, they are initiated with a formal letter to the board, followed by multiple in-person meetings.

The purpose of this type of engagement is to share our perspective with the board about what we view as a significant impediment to our ability to meet our investment goals, and to explore ways to work constructively with the company to remove the impediment.

A recent example of this type of engagement had to do with the mix of skill sets on a pharmaceutical company’s board. Several years before, this company experienced a period of financial distress, and as a result the board became populated with turn-around experts, bankers and directors with distressed-debt experience. This group of directors successfully executed a turn-around, and the company was able to invest in its drug pipeline again. However, it had entered a stage when it was failing to reach critical milestones, experiencing serious patient-safety issues and reporting consistently disappointing financial results. In our view, the board’s lack of medically trained experts and practitioners was one reason for the persistent problems. Over two years we advocated for a renewed focus on director skills and qualifications, given the changing nature of the company’s challenges.

CRITERIA FOR "HEAVY ENGAGEMENT"

Before embarking on any engagement of this variety, consider the following questions:

 

  • Are we significant shareholders?
  • Do we expect to remain long-term shareholders of the company? Do we understand the company well? Are we prepared to devote significant resources toward resolving this situation? In short, do we have standing to engage with this board?
  • To the extent there are multiple portfolio managers who own the security, do they all agree on the nature and extent of the problem?
  • Do our firm’s clients own other securities of this company (for example, its debt instruments)? If so, have we communicated effectively on an internal level before requesting dialogue with the company?
  • Do we have both a concrete understanding of the problem and a constructive solution to offer?
MODERATE ENGAGEMENT

There are engagement activities in the middle of the barbell where we tend to be less involved. We do not generally employ issue-specific screens to identify engagement targets, or write large numbers of letters to our portfolio companies expressing a view on a general sustainability topic. For some investors, these seem to be effective mechanisms to initiate dialogue, but we believe our barbell approach is best suited to our firm’s resources and investment strategies.

Important Information

This material, including any statements, information, data and content contained therein and any materials, information, images, links, sounds, graphics or video provided in conjunction with this document (collectively “Materials”) are being furnished by T. Rowe Price for your general informational purposes only. The Materials are not intended for use by persons in jurisdictions which prohibit or restrict the distribution of the Materials and in certain countries these Materials are only provided upon specific request. It is not intended for distribution to retail investors in any jurisdiction. Under no circumstances should the Materials, in whole or in part, be copied, redistributed or shown to any person without consent from T. Rowe Price. The Materials do not constitute a distribution, an offer, an invitation, recommendation or solicitation to sell or buy any securities in any jurisdiction. The Materials have not been reviewed by any regulatory authority in any jurisdiction. The Materials do not constitute investment advice and should not be relied upon. Investors should seek independent legal and financial advice, including advice as to tax consequences, before making any investment decision. The views contained herein are as of June 2015 and may have changed since that time. Issued in Australia by T. Rowe Price International Ltd (“TRPIL”) (ABN 84 104 852 191), Level 50, Governor Phillip Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Suite 50B, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia. TRPIL is exempt from the requirement to hold an Australian Financial Services license (“AFSL”) in respect of the financial services it provides in Australia. TRPIL is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”) under UK laws, which differ from Australian laws. For Wholesale Clients only. Issued in Canada by T. Rowe Price (Canada), Inc. T. Rowe Price (Canada), Inc. enters into written delegation agreements with affiliates to provide investment management services. T. Rowe Price (Canada), Inc. is not registered to provide investment management business in all Canadian provinces. Our investment management services are only available for use by Accredited Investors as defined under National Instrument 45-106 in those provinces where we are able to provide such services. Issued in the Dubai International Financial Centre by TRPIL. This material is communicated on behalf of TRPIL by the TRPIL Representative Office which is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. For Professional Clients only. Issued in the EEA by T. Rowe Price International Limited (“TRPIL”), 60 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4N 4TZ which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. For Qualified Investors only. Issued in Hong Kong by T. Rowe Price Hong Kong Limited (“TRPHK”), 21/F, Jardine House, 1 Connaught Place, Central, Hong Kong. TRPHK is licensed and regulated by the Securities & Futures Commission. For Professional Investors only. Issued in Japan by T. Rowe Price International Ltd, Tokyo Branch (“TRPILTB”) (KLFB Registration No. 445 (Financial Instruments Service Provider), JIAA Membership No. 011-01162), located at GranTokyo South Tower 7F, 9-2, Marunouchi 1-chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-6607. This material is intended for use by Professional Investors only and may not be disseminated without the prior approval of TRPILTB. Issued in New Zealand by T. Rowe Price International Ltd (“TRPIL”). TRPIL is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority under UK laws, which differ from New Zealand laws. This material is intended only for use by persons who are not members of the public, by virtue of section 3(2)(a)(ii) of the Securities Act 1978. Issued in Singapore by T. Rowe Price Singapore Private Limited (“TRP Singapore”), No. 501 Orchard Rd, #10-02 Wheelock Place, Singapore 238880. TRP Singapore is licensed and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. For Institutional and Accredited Investors only. Issued in Switzerland by T. Rowe Price (Switzerland) GmbH (“TRPSWISS”), Talstrasse 65, 6th Floor, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland. For Qualified Investors only. Issued in the USA by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., 100 East Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD, 21202, which is regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. For Institutional Investors only. T. ROWE PRICE, INVEST WITH CONFIDENCE and the Bighorn Sheep design are, collectively and/or apart, trademarks or registered trademarks of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. in the United States, European Union, and other countries. This material is intended for use only in select countries.

2015-GL-2040

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T. Rowe Price ("TRP") claims compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®) and has prepared and presented this report in compliance with the GIPS standards. T. Rowe Price has been independently verified for the twenty four-year period ended June 30, 2020, by KPMG LLP. The verification report is available upon request. A firm that claims compliance with the GIPS standards must establish policies and procedures for complying with all the applicable requirements of the GIPS standards. Verification provides assurance on whether the firm’s policies and procedures related to composite and pooled fund maintenance, as well as the calculation, presentation, and distribution of performance, have been designed in compliance with the GIPS standards and have been implemented on a firm-wide basis. Verification does not provide assurance on the accuracy of any specific performance report.

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