Just Share has published a round-up of Investec’s 2024 AGM which took place on 8 August.
Key takeaways:
- Following an engagement with members of the board Just Share agreed to share our potential questions with Investec prior to the AGM, in order to facilitate more in-depth and robust engagement at the AGM. However, the opportunity to prepare did not result in Investec providing more meaningful responses than in previous years, nor in more robust engagement.
- Investec Group CEO Fani Titi would not commit to expanding the bank’s disclosure of its financed emissions from fossil fuels beyond power/energy generation. Investec is falling behind its peers, as most of the other South African banks are disclosing broader categories of their exposure to fossil fuels.
- Investec does not appear to have adopted any criteria for assessing client transition plans in relation to financing gas, despite the explicit requirement of its new sustainable and transition finance framework that it will finance “gas-fired power generation and associated infrastructure strictly in the circumstances where it forms part of a credible transition plan”.
- Investec committed to linking executives’ short-term incentives (STIs) and long-term incentives (LTIs) to progress in Belonging, Inclusion, and Diversity (BID) and transformation within the company.
- Investec’s reports indicate that the company is committed to improving race and gender representation at all levels through the effective implementation of its Employment Equity (EE) plan in South Africa. However, in his response to Just Share’s question the CEO failed to provide specific transformation targets for the current EE plan, which is set to be finalised in 2024.
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