The Border to Coast Pensions Partnership has selected asset manager Robeco to perform its voting and engagement services.

The £43bn public sector pension pool is set to use the firm’s active ownership service which enables institutional investors to become active owners of listed companies, encouraging “sustainable business practices” within organisations.

According to Robeco, its service helps investors engage with senior management of listed companies, in order to make a long-term difference to investment outcomes for its partner funds.

Border to Coast CEO, Rachel Elwell, said: “We are strong advocates of responsible investment and holding companies to account on environmental, social and governance issues. This is central to Border to Coast’s corporate and investment ethos and a key part of delivering our partner funds’ objectives.

“We were impressed by Robeco’s breadth of engagement across all asset classes and geographies, especially in emerging markets and Asia, and by their level of detailed research and analysis.”

Recently, Border to Coast became a member of the Local Authority Pension fund Forum as well as a signatory to Climate Action 100+, in order to “strengthen its ability to influence change in its priority engagement areas”.

Robeco head of UK, Peter Walsh, said: “Winning this mandate builds on our solid traction in the local government pension fund sector and will add further momentum to our Active Ownership team and strengthen our local sustainability investing profile.”

The group said that it votes on around 5,000 shareholder meetings each year, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions , remuneration and companies engagement with environmental, social and governance issues.

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