CalPERS, Hermes Will Form Alliance

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System and Hermes Pensions Management Ltd., two of the world’s largest institutional investors, reached an agreement to work together on pressuring companies to meet standards of performance set by shareholders. CalPERS, which manages $139 billion in assets, and Hermes, which manages $59 billion, will focus on investments in the United States and Britain. Hermes is the principal investment manager for British Telecommunications and Britain’s post office workers. In a joint announcement, the two funds said each will endorse the other’s home-market corporate governance proxy voting policies and will generally vote their foreign proxies in accordance with those policies. The announcement said institutional investors in other markets may join their alliance with the mutual agreement of CalPERS and Hermes.