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Investment Stewardship Activities Report
Introduction
In line with the Principles of the UK Stewardship Code 2026 (the Code), this report highlights our key stewardship activities and outcomes from 2025. This report should be read alongside Our Stewardship Principles and Guidelines, which outlines our stewardship approach and serves as our Policy and Context disclosure for the purposes of adhering to the Code.
An overview of how and where we evidence our approach to each Code principle we report on can be found in Appendix A. While this report directly links to the UK Stewardship Code 2026, it also evidences our compliance with a number of global stewardship codes. See Appendix D for more details.
For Baillie Gifford, good stewardship means being active and engaged owners of the companies we invest in to support long-term value creation for our clients and beneficiaries. Where possible, we consider all asset classes within the framework of our stewardship activities. However, our stewardship principles are generally more applicable to corporate securities, as these represent the majority of our assets under management. The use of ‘company’ or ‘corporate’ throughout the report refers to listed equities, unless otherwise stated. This report includes examples of our interactions with portfolio companies throughout 2025, primarily related to governance and sustainability issues. These represent only a subset of our total interactions with investee companies and do not capture an exhaustive list of topics discussed with companies through the ordinary course of business. We have focused this report on the issues we believe are of greatest interest to the majority of our clients. We undertake our stewardship responsibilities on behalf of our clients, who select us for our active investment approach. Our long-term, fundamental investment philosophy aligns well with our institutional clients, who also have long time horizons. Our investment processes, from idea generation to stewardship activities, are driven by long-termism. This is evidenced in our average ownership period of more than six years.
We undertake our stewardship responsibilities on behalf of our clients, who select us for our active investment approach. Our long-term, fundamental investment philosophy aligns well with our institutional clients, who also have long time horizons. Our investment processes, from idea generation to stewardship activities, are driven by long-termism. This is evidenced in our average ownership period of more than six years.
Our annual client satisfaction survey, now in its 25th year, continues to provide us with valuable feedback and helps us identify areas where we can improve to meet our clients' expectations. In 2025, we were pleased to see that despite a challenging backdrop, client feedback included positive references to the consistency of our investment process, stability and culture. We understand there is some interest in more detailed, frequent reporting, and we are already taking steps to enhance our data and reporting capabilities.