[GreenYes] Fwd: Campaigners' Guide to Financial Markets

[Gary Liss <gary@garyliss.com>]

>From: Simon Billenness <sbillenness@trilliuminvest.com>
>Delivered-To: mailing list empoweringdemocracy@yahoogroups.com
>Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 10:51:48 -0400
>
>From: "Nick Hildyard" <nick@fifehead.demon.co.uk>
>
>PLEASE CIRCULATE
>APOLOGIES FOR CROSS-POSTING
>
>THE CAMPAIGNERS' GUIDE TO FINANCIAL MARKETS:
>Effective Lobbying of Companies and Financial Institutions
>by Nicholas Hildyard and Mark Mansley
>published by The Corner House, UK
>
>
>Public interest groups are increasingly using consumer buying power to get
>companies to address issues ranging from workers' rights to environmental
>degradation and human rights.
>
>Such power can be exercised not only within the retail market - through
>consumer boycotts, for instance - but also within financial markets through
>lobbying institutional investors such as pension funds and banks.
>
>The effectiveness of financial market campaigns is greatly enhanced when
>activists understand the culture and psychology of the financial
>institutions they are seeking to influence.
>
>This Guide focuses on the financial institutions that dominate the UK and
>US markets. It summarises the arguments that are most likely to influence
>these institutions; the approaches to campaigning that have proved most
>effective; and the areas in which engagement is most productive. It
>provides a range of case studies of investor campaigns on issues ranging
>from dams and oil to human rights and genetic engineering.
>
>The Guide also contains an 80-page guide to researching companies and
>industrial sectors, including a comprehensive list of the best web sites
>and library resources.
>
>A4, 204 pages, October 2001
>Not-for-profit groups:£20/$30 printed paper copies;
>zipped PDF files (782KB) free
>Companies and institutions: £60/$90
>Postage and packing: £5/$10 (Airmail £7/$14)
>
>UK cheques and US checks accepted, payable to 'Corner House Research';
>sorry no credit cards.
>
>The Corner House, PO Box 3137, Station Road, Sturminster Newton, Dorset
>DT10 1YJ, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1258 473795. Email: cornerhouse@gn.apc.org
>
>
>Contents
>
>1.  FINANCIAL MARKETS - A NEW POLITICAL SPACE
>
>    A world transformed
>    The impacts of globalisation
>    The growing power of the private sector
>    The shifting space for change
>    Lobbying the markets
>
>The power of the market - Markets as "neutral ground" - NGO strengths:
>market weaknesses - Increasing consumer awareness - Globalisation and
>increased corporate vulnerability - The rise of ethical shareholding -
>Changing institutional cultures - New regulatory measures - A willingness to
>change?
>
>    The limits of market activism
>    Is a financial campaign appropriate?
>
>    Boxes
>     The increasing economic power of the private sector
>     What are financial markets?
>     Changing the framework: From Seattle to Prague
>     Project finance
>     Consumer and shareholder activism
>     A bank besieged: Consumer power against bigotry
>     Huntingdon Life Sciences: Naming and shaming
>     First do no harm
>     The impact of shareholder activism - the US experience (by Michelle
>Chan-Fishel)
>     Put your own house in order
>     Internal review
>
>2. UNDERSTANDING THE MARKETS - PSYCHOLOGY, ARGUMENTS AND OPENINGS
>
>    Using the mentality of the market to your advantage
>    Exposing the risks
>    Key pressure points and how to use them
>    Management quality - Business strategy - Financial risk: company analysis
>/ project analysis Non-financial risks - Political risks - Legal risks -
>Environmental risks - Reputational risks
>
>    Matching the pressure points to the financial player
>
>    Boxes
>     Reading the balance sheet
>     ABB - Moving out of dams
>     Three Gorges: Bond issues challenged
>
>3. CAMPAIGNING IN THE MARKET: STRATEGIES, TACTICS AND TIMING
>
>    Strategies, Tactics and Timing
>     Industry-wide campaigns
>     Changing company practices
>     Infrastructure projects
>     Financial market practice
>
>   The main options for intervention
>     Analysis and revaluation
>     Engagement and reducing "bad practice"
>     Direct campaigning and moral persuasion
>
>   Timing
>   Key intervention points
>     Initial public offerings
>     AGMs and shareholder resolutions
>
>   Creating political space
>
>    Boxes
>     Genetic slump
>     Specimen letters
>     Wording your resolution
>     Potential and limitations of shareholder activism
>     Insights from the US (by Michelle Chan Fishel)
>     Pull out of Burma: Protests, boycotts and shareholder action
>     BP: Mobilising investors for change
>
>4. PLAYERS IN THE MARKET
>
>   Understanding your audience
>   Analysts
>     Types of analyst
>     What sort of people are analysts?
>     What are their success factors?
>     What are their outputs?
>     What information do analysts use?
>     When do they do their research?
>     What time frame do analysts have?
>     Engaging analysts
>     Presenting your research
>     The need for preparation
>     Timing your intervention
>
>   Institutional investors
>     Types of institutional investors
>     Investment institutions
>     Who's who in the institutions?
>     What are their success factors?
>
>   Fund managers
>     Who are they?
>     What are their success factors?
>     Competition
>     Information overload
>     Style of fund managers
>     Mergers and change
>     Engaging fund managers and investors
>     Approaching fund manager
>     Campaigns targeting fund managers
>     Practicalities of running a fund management campaign
>
>   The ethical investment sector
>     The ethical niche
>     Types of organisation
>     Who works in ethical investment organisations?
>     What are their success factors?
>     How can ethical investors help?
>     Working with ethical investors
>     Conclusions
>
>   Banks and project finance
>     Banking - Risk and reputation
>     Getting access to senior management
>     Understanding project financiers
>     Stages of project finance
>
>    Boxes
>     The Bakun campaign - Lobbying the analysts
>     The World Bank bonds campaign
>     Organising a shareholder resolution: The Balfour Beatty
>     campaign (
>     Questions to fund managers
>     The "Ethics for USS" campaign
>     Ethical investment organisations outside Europe and North America
>
>     Table 1: Socially Responsible Investment networks and research
>organisations
>
>5. GETTING INFORMATION FOR A FINANCIAL LOBBYING CAMPAIGN
>
>   Structuring your research
>
>   Where do I find . . . ?
>     Company annual reports
>     Company websites
>     Overview of the company
>     The company's record
>     Environmental policies
>     Subsidiaries and parents
>     The products a company manufactures
>     Names of the shareholders
>     Help in launching a shareholder action
>     What companies a financial institution is investing in
>     How well a company is performing
>     Analysts' reports
>     Who's financing a private-sector infrastructure project
>     What public money is backing a project
>     Names of company analysts
>     Names of fund managers
>     Names of company advisors
>     Names of company directors
>     Who's importing and exporting what
>     What research a company is funding
>
>    Boxes and tables
>     Table 2: Key directories for corporate research
>     Table 3: Company reports on the Web
>     Table 4: Top corporate research web sites
>     Table 5: Web sites with attitude
>     Table 6: Directories detailing corporate ownership
>     Spotting key investors
>     Table 7: Infrastructure project databases on the Web
>     Table 8: Pension fund directories
>     Table 9: Directories with details of key company officials
>     Table 10: Importers and exporters - Directories and web sites
>
>6. FURTHER RESEARCH - SKILLS AND RESOURCES
>
>   Where to go for information
>
>    Libraries
>     Uses of libraries - Choosing your library - How to use libraries
>
>    The Web
>     The dangers - Search engines - Types of search - English isn't the only
>language - Filtering software - Other techniques - Free trials
>
>    The Media
>     Media on the Web - CD-Roms - Indexes - Finding trade journals -
>Alternative media - Press databases
>
>    Company and industry sources
>     Trade associations - Professional associations - Trade journals - Market
>research
>
>    Government sources
>     Using company registrars - Finding you way round government - Regulatory
>agencies -  Government departments and quangos
>
>    Parliaments
>    Statistical sources
>    Verbal sources
>    Conferences - News conferences - Interviews
>    Financial Instutions
>    Ethical investors
>
>   Boxes
>    Basic skills and techniques
>    Table 11: UK business and copyright libraries
>    Table 12: Tried and tested engines
>    Table 13: Guides and portals
>    Table 14: Trade journal publishers
>    Table 15: Press databases on the Web
>    Table 16: Trade associations
>    Using EDGAR to challenge companies
>    Table 17: Regulatory agencies on the Web
>    Table 18: Statistical sources on the Web
>    Table 19: Ethical investors
>
>7. RESEARCHING SECTORS
>    Agribusiness and biotechnology
>    Oil and gas
>    Mining
>    Dams
>    Pulpwood plantations and the paper industry
>    Carbon trading
>
>   References
>   Glossary
>
>
>
>
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Gary Liss
916-652-7850
Fax: 916-652-0485

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