In line with this sentiment almost three-quarters of managers were planning to increase their resources devoted to handling corporate governance issues.
Managers also said they planned to be louder in voicing their concerns at annual general meetings this year compared with previous years. About half said they would be a little more vocal while 9% said a lot more.
Most survey participants said fund groups should, to some extent, play an active role in the management of the companie
s in which they invest. However, a significant number - some 39% - said they should not.
Some groups argued that they can simply refuse to invest in firms with policies they dislike. Others said they prefer to press the companies to make changes. Yet not all activity is played out in the media or at public meetings. Some of the fund groups surveyed mentioned they choose to address problems in one-on-one meetings.
Across Europe fund managers in Britain were seen by most to be the most active in corporate governance. Some 31 fund groups chose the UK while Germany and Sweden followed with three votes each. Italian fund groups were said to be the least active.
Stockmarket predictions
Fund managers were generally more cautious about the performance of global stockmarkets over the coming year. Expectations fell significantly with only 16% predicting gains of more than 10% over the next 12 months.
The rise of Japan also stood out in this survey. Sentiment towards the country improved steadily in March in terms of both its currency and its stockmarket. Some 37% said the yen would be the best performing currency over the next year, a close second to the euro which garnered 41%. Japan was also expected to be the second best performing region over the coming 12 months, just below the rest of Asia.
Some 42% said the UK would be the worst performing region over the next year. America followed with 20% but this was an improvement on the 32% in the last survey.
Overall managers said growth shares would outperform value ones but the gap between the two shrank. Only 30% favoured growth, down from 45% in February, while 22% preferred value shares. Large firms were expected to outperform smaller companies.
Managers said the energy, financial services and telecommunications sectors would be the top performers. Utilities and hardware were expected to perform the worst.
Morningstar’s European offices conducted the survey from March 15th-22nd. Some 63 fund groups from 12 countries participated. On average they each managed €54 billion (£36 billion) and offered 88 retail funds.
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