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Hermes EOS appointed by Brunel Pension Partnership

Press
4 September 2018

Hermes Investment Management has today announced that its stewardship and engagement team, Hermes EOS, has been appointed by Brunel Pension Partnership (Brunel) to provide voting and engagement services.

Brunel brings together circa £30 billion investments of 10 likeminded Local Government Pensions Scheme funds. It is one of eight national pooled funds and will manage the investment of the pension assets for the funds of Avon, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Environment Agency, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, and Wiltshire.

Dr. Hans-Christoph Hirt, Head of Hermes EOS, said:

“Brunel’s recognition of an asset owner’s fiduciary duty to address ESG concerns and invest responsibly to protect and create long-term value for clients aligns with our own goals as an active steward. Hermes EOS is a global leader in its field and our highly-experienced and skilled team will work collaboratively with Brunel to implement a market leading, global engagement programme to help deliver on its responsible investment policy and achieve the best outcomes for clients. We are thrilled to have been selected as engagement and voting provider and we look forward to working closely with the team at Brunel who are advocates of responsible investing and first-class stewardship.”

Faith Ward, Chief Responsible Investment Officer at Brunel, said:

“A robust approach to engagement and voting is at the core of how Brunel will deliver its stewardship and responsible investment approach. We’ve chosen to appoint Hermes EOS in part because we’re impressed by their willingness to actively collaborate with our asset managers to ensure joined up and seamless integration. We value the expertise of our managers and expect that having the engagement overlay will equip us to achieve more, both for our shareholder client funds and towards our aim of investing for a world worth living in.”

This follows the announcement in August of the appointment of Hermes EOS by First State Super, one of the largest superannuation funds in Australia. Hermes EOS is one of the world’s leading stewardship services, advising on £346.3bn[footnote]As of 30 June 20181 on behalf of its clients. In 2017, the Hermes EOS team engaged with 659 companies on 1,704 environmental, social, governance, strategy, risk and communication issues and objectives.

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