ESG Integration
Engagement & Voting
Aligning Sustainable Principles with Fiduciary Responsibility
We believe that proper attention to corporate governance, environmental, and social matters is essential for long-term value creation, fully aligned with our fundamental investment approach. As an institutional investor, our fiduciary duty is to always act in the best interests of our investors and beneficiaries, helping clients harness market potential to achieve their objectives.
Our engagement efforts focus on companies that severely and systematically breach the principles of the United Nations Global Compact or other international conventions relating to human rights, labour, the environment, and anti-corruption. We believe that maintaining a constructive dialogue with the companies in which our funds invest is more effective than outright exclusion from our investment universe.
We also maintain an internal log of engagements, which is regularly submitted to our Responsible Investment Committee for review.
Different forms of engagement
Collaborative and Targeted Engagement for Lasting Impact
Recognising the value of different forms of engagement, we undertake both collaborative and individual engagements with companies. Given our size and focus, we consider active participation in collaborative platforms to be the most effective way to promote improved market practices. We are active members of initiatives such as the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI), CDP, the Access to Medicine Foundation, and Climate Action 100+.
Within these memberships, we identify and prioritise our collaborative engagement activities while maintaining full responsibility for our engagement efforts. Although we leverage these platforms for collaborative initiatives, we do not outsource our engagement responsibilities to third parties.
In addition, we carry out targeted individual engagements when severe controversies are identified in companies. If such engagements fail to achieve the desired change, our Responsible Investment Committee may decide to exclude the company from the investment universe.
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voting
Focused Voting Aligned with Our Engagement Principles
The voting scope is made up of companies for which aggregated positions meet one of the four following conditions:
1. is a holding of the Article 9 SFDR fund(s) (systematic) or selected Article 8 SFDR fund(s)(case-by-case
voting decision);
2. qualitative evaluation on the vote's relative importance,
3. ad hoc demand or
4. local market regulation requirements.
These factors ensure that we concentrate our efforts on positions representing a significant proportion of our assets under management and participate efficiently and effectively in shareholders’ meetings of companies in which our collective investment schemes hold a meaningful stake.
We have set up our proxy voting platform in order to automate our process as much as possible
Business Conduct & Activities
Our Approach to Exclusions and ESG Risk Management
We exclude companies when we see a clear risk that they contribute to or are involved in key ESG issues we consider harmful or potentially harmful, going against our values or breaching international laws, norms, or conventions. These exclusions apply only to listed equities on the long side of our portfolios, although we may short these names in our alternative strategies.
Our exclusion list combines insights from external data providers with our own in-house analysis. A company can be excluded for one or several issues, and every exclusion decision is carefully reviewed by our Responsible Investment Committee. We apply exclusions in two main areas:
• Controversial business conduct that goes against international norms or our values, such as violations of the
UNGC principles or OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
• Revenue from harmful activities that have a negative impact on society or the environment
Three categories are considered:
○ Weapons
○ Consumer Products & Services
○ Energy & Fossil Fuels
Our full Exclusion Policy can be provided upon request