Korea's sovereign wealth fund directly exercises voting rights for first time

Korea Investment Corporation (KIC), the South Korean sovereign wealth fund, has begun actively exercising its voting rights in invested companies.

According to KIC on Thursday, it participated in shareholders meetings and voting from May 24 to 31 for various companies, including Thermo Fisher Scientific, a US life sciences company, TotalEnergies, a French energy company, Glencore, a Swiss mining company, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and ExxonMobil, a global energy company.

It is also planning to directly exercise its voting rights at the upcoming shareholders meeting of Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, on Friday.

"Active ownership and shareholder engagement is an important part of sovereign wealth fund’s investment. KIC’s shareholder voting on its own direction is a meaningful step forward to fulfill stewardship responsibilities,” said KIC CEO Jin Seoungho.

“KIC is committed to enhancing sustainability in global business, thus creating long term value of ESG investments. We are also collaborating with global institutional investors to raise
collective voices to encourage better ESG practices and contribute to effective net zero transition,” he added.

Write to Byeong-Hwa Ryu at hwahwa@hankyung.com