BRITAIN’S biggest pension funds are the most sceptical institutional shareholders when voting on controversial company issues, a detailed survey has revealed. By contrast, household-name fund managers such as Fidelity are the most friendly and supportive to companies’ management, even though Fidelity has made some high-profile interventions.

Most global investment banks and managers such as State Street, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Schroder and UBS refused to take part in the TUC’s fourth annual Fund Manager Survey. Only 26 fund managers responded to the survey, down from 32 last year.

The TUC will release the results of the study today at its trustee conference, a day before the House of Lords gives its second reading of the Company Law Reform Bill. In the first reading the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats removed a clause mandating fund managers to disclose records of how they had voted, if at all, on resolutions at company meetings.

The survey looked at the votes cast between July 2004 and July 2005 by fund managers on 17 of the most controversial annual meeting polls, including the reappointment of Sir Ken Morrison at Morrison Supermarkets and the remuneration arrangements at United Business Media.

Of the funds that responded to the survey, Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), Britain’s second-biggest pension fund after that of BT Group, with £21.7 billion in assets, and Railpen, the Railways Pension Trustee Company, registered the most “against” votes on the 17 key issues. Both funds made eight votes against company resolutions, while Railpen made three “for” votes and USS four.

Of the nine votes on which it provided information to the survey, British Airways Pensions Investment, which holds £6 billion in equities, voted against the company on one third of the resolutions.

Well-known funds such as Fidelity International, Henderson Global Investors, Aberbeen Asset Management and Insight investments were the most likely of the survey respondents to support company resolutions. Fidelity and Insight both voted for the company in 14 of the 17 key votes, abstained for two votes each and voted against only once. Aberdeen and Henderson had 12 votes “for” and three abstentions.

Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the TUC, said that the poor response to the survey showed that many fund managers did not want to be answerable to the pension funds that entrusted them with their assets.

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