Active ownership

Overview

We take an active approach to stewardship through engagement, proxy voting and advocacy. This allows us the flexibility to address emerging sustainability issues that matter most to our clients and work with firms to achieve better outcomes. Active ownership covers all asset classes, and the mechanisms of driving change, timeframes and level of influence can differ, depending on the unique characteristics of each asset class.

Effective stewardship is art building on science. Our 5-year climate engagement program is built on simplification bottom-up science-based analysis that guides skillful engagement, combining professionalism and craftsmanship. Strong governance is the foundation of every company's unique long-term growth and positive financial performance journey. 

Lucy Thomas, Head of Sustainable Investing and Impact at UBS Asset Management

Our latest Stewardship Report

Stewardship plays a central role within our investment approach; it helps us meet both client and regulatory expectations. The UBS Stewardship Report focuses on the outcomes we believe our activities have delivered in the past year on clients and society in general.

Our engagement in 2023

  • 471 engagement meetings.
  • 64% of engagement interactions achieved progress against pre-defined objectives.
  • 25% of engagement interactions gave us specific insights in relation to AGM items and proxy voting.
  • 320 companies engaged with across regions and sectors.
  • 44% of engagement meetings with CEO/CFO and other C-Suite representatives.
  • 40% of companies engaged with are situated in EMEA, 43% in Americas and 18% in Asia-Pacific.

As of 31 December 2023

Note: The above numbers are aggregated from multiple legal entities within UBS AM, a division of UBS AG. These legal entities provide services globally.

Our proxy voting in 2023:

  • 60 countries voted in globally.
  • 11,445 shareholder meetings in which votes were submitted, upon 117,512 separate resolutions.
  • 20,972 in which management recommendations were voted against (18% of total resolutions voted).
  • 68% of meetings voted globally at least one resolution was cast as a vote against management.
  • 1,611 shareholder resolutions voted related to ESG topics with 198 shareholder proposals voted related to environmental issues and 304 related to social issues.
  • 68% support of all ESG shareholder resolutions.

As of 31 December 2023

Note: The above numbers are aggregated from multiple legal entities within UBS AM, a division of UBS AG. These legal entities provide services globally.

Thematic engagement

A key part of our approach to Active ownership is thematic engagement. We use thematic engagements to focus on specific social and environmental themes where we believe these can help to foster positive outcomes for company performance, people and the planet:

  • Climate change
  • Natural capital
  • Human capital
  • Human rights
  • Health
UBS Asset Management is a signatory of the Singapore Stewardship Principles for Responsible Investors.

Sustainable investing strategies aim to incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into investment process and portfolio construction. Strategies across geographies and styles approach ESG analysis and incorporate the findings in a variety of ways. The returns on portfolios consisting primarily of sustainable investments may be lower or higher than portfolios where ESG factors, exclusions, or other sustainability issues are not considered, and the investment opportunities available to such portfolios may also differ.