Afraid this is a subscription publication, so will try and pick out some interesting paragraphs (I have the whole article in pdf).
https://www.asianinvestor.net/articl...rnance-in-asia
Giant index fund managers may be thought to sit on their hands when it comes to exerting shareholder influence, but the reality is different.
"Asia's largest passive fund managers feel they are fighting against a
perception that they don't do enough to engage with the companies they
hold in their portfolios."
"reflects the importance passive managers such
Blackrock, Vanguard and State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) are placing on
engagement.
Between them, those three fund groups – the
world’s biggest – manage $13.6 trillion of assets
globally and about $1 trillion in Asia Pacific, much of
it passively."
Re Australian companies "Blackrock will engage with the chairman of a company directly. "Our focus is on governance and one of our priorities is around the structure of the board; looking at a good diverse skill set. Do we need an independent director with a background in that industry?""
"In Asia, the shareholder structure is very different, with block shareholders
and family estates dominating.
"Getting access to the board is difficult, but increasingly we are getting
there," Bennett said.
"We use it as an opportunity for a broader discussion. To explain to them
what passive investing is, because they don’t know that we are long term
shareholders. Like the family, we can't sell out, so our interests are aligned.
And that’s a wake-up call for families.""
"The asset manager's preferred structure is an annual director-election
process, which allows shareholders to hold individual directors
accountable, as compared to a staggered board structure, where individual
directors stand for elections periodically and, once elected, serve for
multiple years before standing for re-election."