Legal & General is pushing ahead with plans to vote against companies that do not have an ethnically diverse board.
The institutional investor issued an ultimatum to FTSE 100 and S&P 500 companies with all-white boards 18 months ago after the Black Lives Matter protests. It said that they should have at least one board member from an ethnic minority by the end of 2021.
In a blog post to be published today, it will name five US companies it says have failed to meet diversity requirements, including Universal Health Services, a hospital and healthcare provider, and People’s United Financial, a savings and loan holding company. Its analysis is based on data from Institutional Shareholder Services.
More than 50 companies had complied with the ultimatum, L&G said. It had planned to vote against DS Smith, the FTSE 100 packaging business, but confirmed it would reverse its position after the company appointed a director from an ethnic minority this month. The other UK-listed company L&G planned to vote against is Evraz, the Russian steelmaker. It noted that all directors resigned from the board this month, except for the chief executive, after the invasion of Ukraine.
