Annual Reviews

The Investor Forum publishes its Annual Review 2023

January 23, 2024

(London, 23^rd January 2024)

The 2023 Investor Forum Annual Review (view here) demonstrates its long-term record of engagement to create solutions and enhance value. As it enters its tenth year, the Forum is resolute in its commitment to elevating stewardship to the core of investment decision-making and to addressing pressing concerns.

In the midst of the debate regarding London’s status as a global financial hub, the Investor Forum acknowledges the shifting dynamics and the Review identifies three key issues which can contribute to a more vibrant and valuable capital market:

The need to reimagine stewardship;
The importance of reconnecting the investment chain; and
The creation of an Investor and Issuer Forum.

The efforts to reform the market are beginning to take shape, and the proposed package of reforms is wide ranging. There is unlikely to be consensus around the value of all the proposed changes, but it is important that the very best ideas gain traction. The Investor Forum argues that now is the time to go beyond analysis and reflection and move forward with conviction to put in place the conditions that can underpin a vibrant and valuable listed equity market.

Reimagining stewardship

The Investor Forum calls for a fundamental shift in stewardship practices, emphasising practical action over codification and encouraging the constructive element of engagement.

Asset Owners, Asset Managers, Companies and Regulators all need to step outside of their own stakeholder group to forge a more effective model of stewardship and engagement. In our opinion a re-set is required to build a common understanding.

Reconnecting the investment chain

With a decade of observation, the Investor Forum again highlights the fragmentation of the investment chain. At a time when UK-dedicated investment resources are shrinking, the Review highlights two key trends which necessitate a re-evaluation of interactions between companies and diverse investment managers:

the increasingly global, and also passive, nature of UK equity ownership; and
the changing relationship between Asset Owners and Asset Managers driven by shifting client expectations.

Markets work best when there is a clear alignment of interests between savers, asset owners, asset managers and companies.

Building an Investor and Issuer Forum

Leveraging its well-established reputation for delivering effective outcomes between investors and companies, the Investor Forum welcomes recognition by the government and industry taskforces of this unique platform and looks forward to working with investor and issuers to create a forum to:

address friction in the market; and
deliver a greater alignment of expectations on key issues, at both the individual company level and the market level.

In so doing, we must ensure that the interface between asset managers and asset owners works efficiently to create solutions to the challenges which face society.

Michael McLintock, Chair of the Investor Forum, said:

“No single body currently exists which brings together senior representatives from the fund management and corporate sectors with a shared objective of making the UK’s capital markets more effective. The Investor Forum was originally created to help facilitate a more constructive dialogue between investing institutions and quoted companies, and it would seem to be a logical extension of its activity for it to become this body. In doing so, it can play a central role in helping to identify and resolve the key issues that currently prevent the UK equity market from being more vibrant.”

Andy Griffiths, Executive Director of the Investor Forum, said:

“Given its unique vantage point, the Investor Forum has an opportunity to make a lasting contribution to the revitalisation of UK markets. There is no more important an objective, no more valuable a purpose.

The time for reflection is over, it is now time for market participants to come together to rejuvenate our marketplace.”

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