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Active ownership

Active ownership

At Velliv, we strive to be an active owner and a constructive investor in both companies and capital managers. Our goal is to influence behaviour, strategies and development through dialogue, support for shareholder resolutions, and voting at general meetings.

We believe that increased transparency and active engagement on ESG risks are essential to achieving our objectives. Active ownership is critical to our goal of a CO2-neutral investment portfolio by 2050 and to meet the Paris Agreement's objective of limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius.

We report annually on our efforts in active ownership, highlighting our successes and challenges. Our latest report provides an overview of our activities and achievements in Velliv Active Ownership 2023.

See our latest active ownership report (in Danish only)

Reactive dialogues with companies

If our monitoring reveals behaviour that breaches international principles and guidelines, we initiate a dialogue with the companies. The goal is to influence the company to prevent or rectify the undesirable behaviour.

A list of the companies we are in dialogue with can be accessed here.

We utilise an internationally recognised collaboration partner, Sustainalytics, to perform systematic work on dialogue with companies in our investment portfolio that exhibit undesirable behaviour.

The companies we're in dialogue with

Proactive dialogues with companies

We also proactively engage in dialogue with companies that are part of our efforts to reduce our financed CO2 emissions and drive improvements in sustainability, without there being a breach of international norms and principles for responsible business practices.

We collaborate with other investors on dialogues with companies, participate in campaigns and sign investor statements, where we encourage both companies and governments on specific topics.

Last but not least, we engage in dialogue with the asset managers who invest on our behalf and yours. We do this, for example, to hear about their perspectives on various sustainability-related issues and to assess their processes and approaches to responsibility and sustainability.

Voting at general meetings

We vote on the annual general meetings of many companies located in different parts of the world. Voting at investment companies' annual general meetings is a central element in our exercise of active ownership.

The annual general meeting is the company's highest authority, and it is here that formal reporting to shareholders takes place. It is also at the annual general meeting that owners can express their concerns or continued support for the company's leadership.

At the annual general meeting, we acknowledge whether the company's structure and strategy supports a sustainable value creation in a way that we believe is meaningful.

We have requirements for:

  • Remuneration policy
  • Leadership and management structure
  • Strategies and ambitions
  • Compliance with fixed goals and other matters such as implementation of risk systems, capital structure and dividend payments.

On our voting portal, you can read the requirements we set for general meetings.

See where and how we have voted in the voting portal (in Danish only)
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Collaborations with other investors

We see significant value in working together with other investors to achieve a common goal. When companies receive calls to action from multiple investors representing a substantial ownership stake, we increase the likelihood of attention and constructive dialogue with those companies.

The more capital an investor has invested in a company, the greater weight their call to action can carry with the company's leadership. To amplify our voice, we have chosen to collaborate with other institutional investors when engaging with the companies we invest in.

We are members of several associations, including:

  • Climate Action 100+ 
  • Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi)
  • The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC)
  • United Nations Principles for Responsible Investments (UN PRI)
  • CDP (former Carbon Disclosure Project)
  • Paris Aligned Investments Initiative (PAII) 
  • Nature Action 100

These memberships and associations contribute to our sustainability goals and focus areas for active ownership.

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