A good year for GIÉ/EIG

EIG’s AGM was held on June 12th and reports presented indicated a successful year once again: good performance from the equities portfolio; continuing shareholder engagement; some interesting new community investments; an increase in membership; and – last but not least – creation of the EIG blog.

The value of one unit of the total EIG portfolio increased by 8.9% (average annual increase since 2003: 7.8%).  Following a low point in 2008, year of the financial crisis, this increase has been steady from year to year.

Equities Trading
The year’s highlights include the following:

• The overall portfolio is up by 13% in 2016 (12% when cash is included), representing a C$41K increase in value.
• With the C$ continuing low, a reserve of cash in US$ was maintained for conversion to C$ as needed (to cover resignations, redemptions and other expenses, as well as purchasing Canadian stocks).
• The portfolio continues to respect the Investment Policy Guidelines regarding regional allocation, market cap exposure, sector exposure and volatility.
• New guidelines have been developed covering situations warranting a return to members for a re-approval vote on stocks that have previously been approved.
• New sectors and stocks for potential future investment have been identified.

Shareholder Engagement Activities

• A request to Stantec for an update on the % of revenue from the oil and gas sector.
• Letters on issues of concern to Costco (abuse of workers in the supply chain) and Whole Foods (confusion resulting from in-house labelling system).
• A declaration signed in support of a proposed US SEC rule on disclosure of pay ratios between CEOs and average company employees.
• An ongoing exchange with CN on the issue of excessive train noise in Pointe-St-Charles.

Community Investment
Highlights include research into new investment opportunities for a large reserve of cash, leading to three new possibilities:

• Fonds communautaire d'accès au micro-crédit (FCAMC), Ste-Thérèse, QC.
• Bâtiment 7, Pointe-St-Charles, Montréal, QC.
• CoPower, green bonds financing cleantech projects across Canada, based in Westmount, QC.

Proposals were distributed to members and all three have been approved.  Investments have been made in the first two and the third is in process.

Membership and Social Events
EIG currently has 39 members.
A survey of social events held over the years shows that they fall into three categories:

• Social Only, e.g potluck evening; picnic.
• Discussion, e.g. movie night; investment issues/proposals
• Educational, e.g. presentations by representatives of EIG’s holdings or potential investments.

Discussion continues on which type of event to favour in the short- and longer-term.

Further details on all of the above are provided in the presentations (PowerPoint), available on the EIG website.