Below is an excerpt from ISS Securities Class Action Services’ recently released paper “Growing Number of Non-U.S. Companies Facing Class Actions: How ESG Issues Can Be The Driving Factor in Multi-Country Cases”. The full paper is available for download from the Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) online library.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Climate change and other ESG factors are driving a heightened focus on stewardship practices among responsible investors.
- Investors, both passive and active, should be mindful of litigation risks and recovery opportunities in their portfolio.
- Originally driven by climate issues, ESG-related litigation is expanding into other ESG areas and across a range of asset classes.
- ESG event-driven security class actions are increasing in number, and capturing a broad range of global brands on a number of different topics.
- Global corporations tend to handle class actions differently in different jurisdictions, with many being settled in the US but drawn out in other markets.
- This practice has implications for global investors interested in expanding their stewardship and fiduciary practices to include active management of securities class action risk.
The follow table sets out some of the major global brands that have been the subject of ESG event-driven securities class actions:
Explore ISS ESG solutions mentioned in this report:
- Maximize your fund’s recoveries while minimizing costs using ISS Securities Class Action Services.
- Develop engagement strategies, define achievable engagement objectives and manage your engagement process with the ISS ESG Engagement Service.
By Jeff Lubitz, Executive Director, ISS Securities Class Action Services. Duncan Paterson, Head of ESG Thought Leadership Program, ISS ESG.
