Business, Innovation and Skills CommitteeSupplementary evidence submitted by Fidelity Worldwide
I greatly appreciated the opportunity to submit evidence to the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee last week as part of your deliberations on the Kay Review of UK Equity Markets and Long-Term Decision Making. There were two points on which I wanted to come back and expand on.
The first relates to question 150 and whether the shares managed by Fidelity International are classified as UK-owned or foreign-owned. I feel that I should elaborate my response, as the problem is that there are a number of answers. The official ownership is usually decided either by where the assets are managed or by the underlying beneficial ownership; but our attitude to our responsibilities is the same regardless of the beneficial ownership.
In London we manage £61 billion, £39 billion of which is managed for foreign clients and £22 billion for UK clients. The assets we manage for foreign clients would be classified as foreign-owned. Looked at another way, in terms of our investment for clients in UK equities, which would be the pivot for our stewardship role in the UK market, as of 31 January 2013 we managed £8.5 billion in UK equities for UK retail and institutional investors. We also invest approximately a further £4 billion in UK equities through other vehicles such as Pan-European and Global funds. These investors are likely to be from around the world. Our responsibility towards our investments in UK assets and the UK economy is the same regardless of ownership.
The second point relates to question 174 and Fidelity International’s voting record. I indicated to the Committee that we had voted against management at 20% of the General Meetings in 2012.
Having revisited the specific figures, I can inform you that globally we voted against management on at least one resolution at 18% of the meetings at which we voted and that 33% of these votes related to Board appointments, 31% to remuneration, 14% were in respect of shareholder proposals, 13% related to capital structure and 9% other.
I hope this is helpful but please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.
Dominic Rossi
Global CIO, Equities
5 March 2013