Published by Ignites.

By Joe Morris March 14, 2013

Franklin Resources shareholders have voted down a shareholder proposal to bar most investments in companies involved in genocide.

A company spokesman said the vote failed to garner a majority, but Franklin will not disclose the tally until it makes a regulatory filing on the vote in a matter of days.

The proposal, put forward by representatives of the advocacy group Investors Against Genocide, would have required the company’s board to take steps to avoid holding investments in companies that “substantially contribute” to genocide. A provision would have allowed for maintaining such investments in rare instances, when “the company’s duties as an advisor require holding these investments,” so long as Franklin issues “prominent disclosure” to flag the investments.

The group cited Franklin’s 7% ownership stake in PetroChina, the Chinese oil and gas producer that it maintains helps to fund genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Franklin’s board had recommended against the proposal. In its proxy statement, Franklin stressed that it already weighs human rights issues as part of its investment process.

“We recognize that human rights, environmental, social and governance issues have the potential to affect the performance of an investment and, therefore, believe that consideration of these issues should be incorporated into mainstream investment analysis and decision-making processes,” the statement reads. “We believe that our investment approach, which considers these issues on an investment-by-investment basis and as part of the overall investment management process, is preferable to the approach recommended by this stockholder proposal.”