SquareWell Partners launches AQTION

• SquareWell, a market-leading shareholder advisory firm, celebrates its fifth anniversary with the launch of AQTION to enable all publicly-listed companies to access an intuitive tool to better manage their relationships with institutional investors.
• AQTION democratises real-time and reliable information on the ESG expectations of over 650 institutional investors from 31 countries.
• AQTION allows companies to gain direct access to key decision-makers at investors globally with more than 2,000 stewardship and responsible investment contacts.
• AQTION is available to any company regardless of their sector, geography, or size.

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On their fifth anniversary, SquareWell Partners (“SquareWell”) launches the AQTION platform. Designed by practitioners to deliver intuitive insight and tools, AQTION allows companies to better understand their institutional investors’ expectations on governance and sustainability matters, approach decision-makers directly, and centralize engagement tracking.

SquareWell Partners - 5^th Anniversary

Founded in 2018, SquareWell recognized the need for companies to take control of their investor relationships and to communicate an integrated “equity story” that was centred on the strength of their governance while also leveraging their sustainability strategy to address “ESG” megatrends – with the aim of attracting strategically engaged investors.

Since 2018, SquareWell has gained the trust of some of the largest companies across 13 markets and has become a key advisor to leadership teams who are conscious of the need to present an impactful narrative to the market and take a more nuanced approach to engaging with investors to build long-lasting relationships.

SquareWell has also positioned its unique advisory capabilities to support on some of the most impactful activism campaigns globally on both the corporate and investor side. Underpinned by 100% independence, while maintaining a strict objective approach to managing conflicts, such positioning has proven to be market leading, as shown by Bloomberg’s Advisor League Tables which ranked SquareWell as the #1 advisor in contested situations globally for the first half of 2023.

Today, SquareWell has strong relationships with corporate and investor clients who benefit greatly from its unique approach and experience which originates from efficiently aggregating timely investor information. Acknowledging that the universe of companies in need of strategic advice is larger than what can be supported through the high-touch advisory model which SquareWell pursues, the opportunity to extend the reach of SquareWell’s insight and approach through a technological solution was apparent. Hence, AQTION was incepted.

For more information, visit SquareWell’s website – www.squarewell-partners.com.

AQTION – Democratising Investor Insight

AQTION seeks to take the first step towards SquareWell’s mission of providing companies with transparency on their institutional shareholders and a tool to manage these relationships directly. As uncovered in its inaugural “Stewardship in AQTION” Study - How The World’s Largest 65 Investors Steward Their Portfolio Companies, the need to understand how stewardship decisions are made is as important as understanding how investment decisions are made. 55 of the Top 65 investors have a dedicated stewardship team, of which 32 collaborate with fund managers in stewarding their assets.

Addressing this need, however, is becoming increasingly difficult with the drive for differentiation. 58 of the Top 65 investors have adopted their own bespoke guidelines as to how companies should be evaluated on their environmental, social, and governance practices and disclosures. The increasing level of differentiation translates to a greater challenge for companies to keep up, and is coupled by the growing willingness for investors to communicate on all topics - 40 of the Top 65 investors published specific expectations on key environmental and social topics, ranging from biodiversity to supply chain risk to cybersecurity.

With up-to-date and reliable information collected on over 650 institutional investors from 31 markets, AQTION is built to provide companies from any industry or country with actionable investor insights on environmental, social, and governance topics. Furthermore, AQTION’s over 2,000 stewardship and responsible investment contacts means that companies now have the opportunity to reach key decision-makers to engage with no filter on such topics. More specifically, companies will easily be able to:

1. Understand their shareholder audience - AQTION presents a comprehensive view of investors on a broad range of “ESG” topics ranging from Capital Allocation to Climate Action, helping companies to anticipate issues and prioritize efforts ahead of time.
2. Approach decision makers at shareholders directly – AQTION enables companies to gain direct and efficient access to relevant decision-makers on ESG and proxy voting matters, avoiding cost and administrative hurdles, and reducing third-party involvement.
3. Leverage internal knowledge on shareholders – AQTION supports companies to quickly log interactions with shareholders to make institutional knowledge accessible to all departments, allowing for smooth collaboration amongst teams, alongside better management of shareholder relationships.

The 100% cloud-based platform means round-the-clock access to all users who can work independently and gain unfiltered insight on their investors’ expectations and engagements. AQTION is currently being launched in beta version.

For more information, visit AQTION’s website – www.aqtion-platform.com.