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Our firmwide and stewardship Conflicts of Interest Disclosures are available on our website. As explained in our Stewardship Conflicts of Interest Disclosure, our Proxy Voting Team has processes in place to identify, prevent and manage those proxy voting conflicts of interest of which we are aware. During 2025, we identified the following scenario as a potential conflict and managed this accordingly.
On behalf of our clients, Baillie Gifford is a shareholder in Kinnevik, a Swedish-listed venture capital firm. In Sweden, the Nomination Committee is commonly comprised of representatives from a company's largest shareholders and should promote the common interests of all shareholders. Having first invested in Kinnevik more than a decade ago, we have long since had a position on the Nomination Committee. In 2025, a Baillie Gifford partner stepped away from the Committee and was replaced by an ESG analyst in our International Growth investment strategy. As the position is not a board position, and the right to be on the Committee stems from shareholding rank on the share register, we do not deem this a conflict of interest. However, given our shareholding and the position we hold, we recognise the increased risk of a conflict arising. To manage this, we have procedures to ensure we do not discuss resolutions related to his Nomination Committee work with him.