Section 3 Take into account wider stakeholder and social responsibilities and their implications for long-term success

Principle

Long-term success relies upon good relations with a range of different stakeholder groups both internal (workforce) and external (suppliers, customers, regulators and others). The Board needs to identify the company’s stakeholders and understand their needs, interests and expectations.

Where matters that relate to the company’s impact on society, the communities within which it operates or the environment have the potential to affect the company’s ability to deliver shareholder value over the medium to long-term, then those matters must be integrated into the company’s strategy and business model.

Feedback is an essential part of all control mechanisms. Systems need to be in place to solicit, consider and act on feedback from all stakeholder groups.

Compliance

The balance of economic value to the Group and social impact is carefully considered, not only throughout the due diligence for any potential investments, but also on-going monitoring by of periodical site visits for the invested projects, with the maintenance of high environmental standards is a key priority. The Board is conscious of its responsibilities in relation to society, particularly in a developing economy such as China. 

The key resources for the Company are principally the Investment Manager and the Company’s advisory team, including its nominated adviser, brokers, solicitors and auditors.  The Investment Manager and therefore the Company rely on a network of intermediaries to originate investment deal flow.  The Board speaks to the advisory team on a regular basis and takes feedback from it throughout the year but in particular in relation to compliance with the AIM Rules and their impact on its investments, from the nominated adviser and solicitors and in relation to accounting matters including net asset value and the annual audit, from the auditors.