Environmentalists Hit US Mutual Funds' Green Votes
Date: 08-Dec-04
Country: USA
Boston-based Ceres, a coalition of environmental, investor and advocacy groups, sponsored the study, which analyzed proxy votes cast at annual meetings earlier this year.
The 2004 proxy season ushered in a new US Securities and Exchange Commission requirement that mutual funds disclose their votes and the guidelines used to arrive at their positions.
The study, conducted by the Investor Responsibility Research Center, found that 25 of the 28 investment management companies controlling the largest 100 stock funds abstained or opposed the shareholder resolutions.
"Mutual funds are missing the boat," Mindy Lubber, executive director of Ceres, said on a conference call. "These resolutions were not asking for the world. They were not asking for major change. They were asking for disclosure."
Lubber said that of 25 shareholder resolutions proposed in 2004, only 11 came to a vote and three of those won support of more than 30 percent of the votes. She said the percentage reflected growing support from institutional investors, such as pension funds.
