Oasis Management Company Ltd., a Hong Kong-based private investment management firm, has become the first foreign institutional investor to adopt South Korea’s stewardship code, the Corporate Governance Service (CGS) said Tuesday.

In a statement on its website, Oasis says it considers “regular monitoring of investee companies to be a key responsibility of fundamental investment management” and that “regular constructive engagement with investee companies is an important characteristic of Oasis’s investment philosophy and approach.”

Oasis has published online its stewardship responsibilities in Korea along with the seven principles under the code. The company is already a signatory to the stewardship code in Hong Kong, Japan and the U.S.

The firm also says it conducts hundreds of meetings each year with company management and “always strives to adhere to industry best practice to avoid conflicts of interest.” It will adhere to the principles by implementing a clearly defined voting policy, it emphasizes.

Oasis is now one of the six institutions to adopt Korea’s stewardship code, joining Stick Investment, Ideal Partners, JKL Partners, Q Capital Partners and Korea Investment Management.

Introduced in Korea in December last year, the stewardship code is a set of guidelines for more responsible investment practices among institutional investors. It encourages investors to exercise their voting rights on key business issues at their investee companies. But many big investors have been reluctant to adopt it because of stringent disclosure requirements and additional costs.

The CGS said that a total of 56 institutions will embrace the code, including 16 asset management firms, three securities firms and two insurance companies. Large foreign institutional investors from the U.K. and the U.S. have also asked about application procedures, it added.

By Kim Hyo-hye

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