Empirical Evidence of Long‐Termism and Shareholder Activism in UK Unit Trusts

In: Corporate governance: an international review, Band 7, Heft 3, S. 288-300

Abstract

In this paper, we assess the impact of recent reforms in UK corporate governance, focusing specifically on aspects of the reforms which apply to unit trust managers, a major group of institutional investors, and their investee companies. We canvass the views of UK unit trust managers to shed light on three issues: the extent of shareholder activism by UK unit trusts; the extent to which longer and stronger decision and communication links are being forged between investment institutions and their investee companies, and; the emerging controversy over whether or not these recent reforms represent a help or a hindrance for unit trust managers. The empirical findings indicate that unit trusts: are active shareholders, developing and using written voting policy documents; are encouraging the development of longer and stronger links with their investee companies, and; have welcomed corporate governance reforms.