U.S. advisory firm William Blair adopts Korea’s stewardship code

William Blair & Co., a Chicago-based investment advisor, pledged to comply with South Korea’s stewardship code, a set of guidelines that encourage institutional investors to exert voting rights and be more active in corporate management.

William Blair has become the first foreign advisory name adopting the code in Korea, also pledged by Korean advisors Sustivest and Zebra Investment Management, according to the Korea Corporate Governance Service (KCGS) on Thursday.

The stewardship code was introduced in the country in December 2016 to allow institutional investors to more actively participate in invested companies’ decision making process to maximize shareholder benefit. The KCGS is an institution in charge of managing the guideline and encouraging investors’ adoption.

Investment advisors provide strategic advice to investors ahead of invested firms’ important decisions in corporate management such as mergers and acquisitions. Last month, the country’s second largest conglomerate Hyundai Motor Group canceled shareholders meetings of its affiliates that were supposed to be held to vote for its plan to reorganize ownership structure in the face of opposition from proxy advisors including foreign-based Institutional Shareholder Service (ISS) and Glass Lewis and Korea’s Sustinvest and KCGS.

Last year, the Netherland-based investment management company Robecco Institutional Asset Management which was founded in 1929 and manages assets worth 267 billion euros ($310 billion) became the third foreign asset manager adopting the stewardship code following Hong Kong’s Oasis Management Co. and U.S. Dalton Investments. BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest fund operator with $6 trillion assets under management, and China’s sovereign fund operator are also reportedly mulling to support the guideline, according to sources.

As of June 19, a total of 48 institutions have adopted the code, including 41 asset managers, three advisors, one insurer, two brokerages and one bank, with 51 considering signing-up for the code. The nation’s largest institutional investor National Pension Service (NPS) is set to apply the code as early as next month.

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