Border to Coast Pensions Partnership and Railpen have joined the growing list of names planning to vote against BP’s chair at its annual meeting next week.
The oil major has sparked concerns among shareholders after it omitted a climate proposal from its ballot, and announced plans to overturn historic climate-disclosure commitments made to investors.
It has also tabled a proposal that would see it ditch in-person annual general meetings (AGMs) altogether.
Railpen broke with tradition on Wednesday by pre-declaring its intention to vote against BP’s chair, Albert Manifold, in a bid “to reinforce our expectations around effective governance, transparency and the protection of important shareholder rights”.
The £34bn (€39bn) UK pension fund said the plan to move to virtual-only meetings would “limit opportunities for meaningful shareholder engagement”, and that BP hadn’t provided enough information about how it would ensure the new format wouldn’t stifle investor voices.
It also wants to see more detail about why BP is refusing to let shareholders vote on a climate disclosure proposal from Dutch campaign group Follow This, and isn’t convinced by the arguments put forward for ditching previously-agreed resolutions.
“BP’s proposal to revoke those shareholder resolutions passed in 2015 and 2019 – including a resolution requiring disclosure on how the company’s strategy aligned with the Paris Agreement – raises concerns about whether shareholder votes are treated as enduring commitments,” it suggested.
The oil major has argued that the resolutions have been overtaken by regulatory disclosure requirements, and are therefore redundant – a point Railpen says is “only partially accurate” because regulation doesn’t go as far as the proposals.
“BP has historically engaged constructively with shareholders on climate-related issues, including in relation to the 2019 Climate Action 100+ Paris-alignment resolution, which was supported by management and received the backing of 99% of shareholders,” it said.
“However, in recent years, BP has taken actions that have raised concerns about its commitment to effective standards of corporate governance and meaningful shareholder rights and access.”
Border to Coast, which now has close to £120bn in assets under management after taking on orphaned local authority pension funds, is also voting against BP.
On the vote against Manifold, it said this was because the company failed to meet Climate Action 100+ expectations on target-setting and decarbonisation, and that it had “concerns about the company’s governance regarding long-term risk management, shareholder rights, and transparency”.
Online-only AGMs, meanwhile, could “limit shareholder participation and reduce board accountability and the opportunity for effective engagement,” it said.
And echoing Railpen, it said it would not revoke the climate disclosure resolutions as the disclosures required were not fully covered by current mandatory reporting requirements.
Border to Coast also said it would support a shareholder proposal on disclosure of the company’s approach to capital expenditure “as we believe greater transparency around the company’s capital allocation decisions would be beneficial for shareholders and enhance risk management”.
BP is urging shareholders to reject the shareholder resolution.
Last week, the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, Legal & General and Robeco came out against BP on at least some AGM items, with proxy advisors ISS and Glass Lewis also recommending clients to oppose BP’s proposals.
The annual meeting will take place on 23 April.
