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Engagement Policy

Purpose

This Engagement Policy sets out how WH Ireland fulfils its obligations under the European Union (EU) Shareholders Rights Directive (SRD II). This Directive aims to improve corporate governance in companies which have their registered office in an EU Member State and whose securities are traded on the EU’s regulated markets.

Introduction

WH Ireland offers wealth management services from our regional presence across the United Kingdom. By placing our clients’ needs at the centre of everything we do, we are well placed to provide timely, bespoke and helpful advice. We believe that a collaborative approach to engagement across investee companies is an important part of being a responsible investment manager.

How WH Ireland monitors and engages with investee companies

We believe that effectively monitoring and engaging with our investee companies is a key component of our Engagement policy. The WH Ireland research team monitors investee companies using a variety of methods and by using publicly available information, third party research and direct communication.

Our monitoring process involves considering both the financial and non-financial performance of our investee companies and focuses on relevant matters such as:

  1. Keeping abreast of the companies long term strategy
  2. Monitoring both internal and external factors which drive the companies value, social and environmental impact, as well as their corporate governance
  3. Satisfying ourselves that the company has a robust capital structure
  4. Understanding the financial and non-financial risks to the company

Any concerns which are identified during our research process are discussed internally within our research team and a course of action is decided. This may lead to a sale of the position or active engagement with the company if we have any concerns around the company’s strategy, governance, performance, increased risk factors or any issues arising from their social and environmental impact. Where we engage directly with investee companies, we may engage with company management via the following methods:

  1. Ongoing dialogue with the company management via attendance of regular meetings, visits or phone calls whereby they will offer their view on topics such as the company’s strategic direction, operational or management issues.
  2. Proxy voting: where we vote on behalf of our discretionary clients holding EEA issued shares, we do so in the best interest of our clients (please the Proxy voting section for more information on our voting policy)

Proxy Voting

Our Corporate Actions team monitor all corporate actions, where shareholders have a vote. When considering which Corporate actions to vote on, we typically do not vote in ‘ordinary resolutions’ but will more broadly consider ‘extraordinary’ resolutions. Furthermore, we will not vote on shares where we have a holding below £100k. If we are going to vote on behalf of our discretionary clients we will engage with the views of our research team in order to decide how we will vote in the best interests of our clients. We vote on behalf of our Discretionary clients in our capacity as their nominated proxy.

For our Execution Only or Managed Advisory clients , we will facilitate their ability to vote in Corporate Actions, Annual General Meetings and Extraordinary General meetings on issues relating to their shares through Broadridge, a proxy voting specialist who help manage shareholder voting in 90 countries.

Whilst we will not notify individual Discretionary clients when we receive notification of a voting event, we will publish a summary of significant votes cast at least annually on our website.

Communicating and Collaborating with other Shareholders

WHI understands the importance of communicating and collaborating with other investors, to understand where our engagement policies are aligned and whereby we can enhance long-term benefits for our clients. Therefore, we are members of collaborative forums such as the ACCA and the ICAEW. Our decision to collaborate with other investors stems from a variety of factors such as:

  • Whether the engagement objectives of the collective group our consistent with WHI’s objectives
  • Whether engaging as part of the group will add move value to our clients than engaging individually
  • When engaging with other shareholders, investors, collaborative forums or industry bodies WH Ireland ensure adherence to all applicable laws and regulations.

Managing Conflicts of Interest

WH Ireland provide a wide variety of investment products and services to a wide range of corporates, institutions and individuals. The firm takes all reasonable steps to maintain and operate effective organisational and administrative arrangements to identify, prevent and/or manage situations which may result in an actual, potential or perceived conflict of interest.

We maintain a separate conflicts of interest policy which is designed to provide clients with an overview of our to identify, and in the event the firm is unable to prevent the conflict, manage these conflicts of interest. For further information on our conflict of interest policy please visit our conflicts of interest policy, which is located on our website;  https://www.whirelandplc.com/conflicts-of-interest-policy