(Bloomberg) -- TCI Fund Management Ltd., the firm run by billionaire hedge fund manager Christopher Hohn, warned companies in its portfolio to step up their climate-change action or risk divestment.
The London-based money manager, which oversees more than $30 billion of assets, sent letters to firms including Airbus SE, Charter Communications Inc. and Moody's Corp. demanding better disclosure on greenhouse gas emissions, according to its website. The Financial Times reported on the letters earlier.
“We expect companies in which we invest to have a credible, publicly disclosed plan,” said the letters dated Nov. 30. “We will also evaluate divestment where a portfolio company refuses to disclose its emissions.”
TCI's warnings come as investors ramp up scrutiny of their holdings' environmental impact. Hohn has personally and through the Children's Investment Fund Foundation donated 200,000 pounds ($258,000) to Extinction Rebellion, which organized mass protests in central London in a push to urge politicians to reach zero emissions worldwide by 2025.
Philip Green, a London-based partner at TCI, said the money manager has been in discussions with its portfolio companies for several weeks prior to the publication of the letters to avoid divestment.
“It's up to investors to do more, to push companies to disclose more,” Green said in a telephone interview. “Divestment is an option but it's better to influence as a shareholder than just to sell your shares to someone else, as that doesn't change anything.”
TCI is known as an activist investor, taking stakes in companies and agitating for change to boost their share prices. One recent campaign involved seeking to revamp the management at the London Stock Exchange Group Plc.
--With assistance from Alastair Marsh.
To contact the reporters on this story: Lucca de Paoli in London at gdepaoli1@bloomberg.net;Suzy Waite in London at swaite8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shelley Robinson at ssmith118@bloomberg.net, Chris Bourke, Patrick Henry
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