Pension trustees to join forces on 'Red Line' AGM votes

LONDON (Reuters) - A British pensions trustee group said on Monday it had launched a "Red Line Voting" initiative to help smaller schemes and other investors take a more active stewardship role in the companies in which they invest. The plan by the Association of Member Nominated Trustees would help schemes join forces to vote through corporate change, and mirrors efforts from groups such as the Association of British Insurers, which issues "Red Top" and "Amber Top" alerts to flag areas of concern for their membership. The Red Lines, voting instructions that would apply to all the companies in which pension schemes invest, would cover the full range of environmental, social and governance issues. "Red Line Voting makes it easy for pooled fund managers to accept voting instructions from many clients," the AMNT said. "They may receive voting instructions from a number of pension schemes, but they would all be the same instructions." While fund managers could disregard the instructions, they would have to explain themselves to trustees, said the AMNT, whose nearly 400 members represent schemes with collective assets of approximately 350 billion pounds ($528 billion). "My hope is that the initiative will empower pension schemes and other investors, large and small, to adopt common voting positions on a range of governance issues where these are relevant to their long-term investment objectives," said Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. (Reporting by Simon Jessop; editing by Sinead Cruise and David Evans)