.png?width=200&height=78&name=CH%20Diligence%20(thicker%20line-white).png "CH Diligence (thicker line-white)")
Bloomberg: Nine of the biggest ESG mutual funds in the U.S. outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index last year, and seven of them beat their market benchmarks over the past five years.
Financial Times: State Street’s $3.1tn investment arm is planning to start voting against the boards of big companies that lag behind on environmental, social and governance standards, a threat that is likely to reverberate in many corporate boardrooms. [Full article available to Financial Times subscribers.]
Bloomberg: It was the usual setup for panelists at a finance conference talking about making smart investments. They were all the same gender. In this case, all women. That probably wasn’t surprising, considering the event was hosted by the United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment.
Institutional Investor: Early last year, alumni of Blue Harbour Group launched a new activist hedge fund, Impactive Capital, with a $250 million anchor investment from the California State Teachers Retirement System. Its strategy: environmental, social, and governance advocacy.
Financial Times: When it comes to hitting the 2030 targets underpinning the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, considering risk alone will not cut it. Larry Fink’s recent emphasis on climate change risks and divesting in coal is significant, albeit a few decades late, but what about opportunities? And what about other sustainable development issues that threaten to bring businesses down? [Full article available to Financial Times subscribers.]
IPE: The Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance has gained two new members and kicked off its campaign to help achieve the Paris Agreement goals by driving change via engagement with companies. Launched in September, the now 18*-strong group of pension funds and insurers today announced that it had gained new members in the form of the Church of England, with its three national investing bodies, and Italian insurance group Generali.
Institutional Asset Manager: The Eurozone is outperforming North America when it comes to ESG investing, although passive and active ESG investors on both sides of the pond have seen a positive impact on portfolio performance since 2014.
The Guardian: Vanguard, the world’s second largest asset manager, has refused to sign up to a group of major investors demanding that polluters respond to the climate crisis, despite its rival BlackRock relenting to pressure to do so.
Financial Times: The world’s biggest investors are coming under intense pressure over the role they play in climate change, as the focus on tackling global warming moves beyond oil, gas and mining to the companies that finance fossil fuel producers. [Full article available to Financial Times subscribers.]
The Asset: While environmental, social, and governance (ESG) integration has been moving rapidly in the public market, more investors are beginning to realize that the private equity is perhaps better suited for ESG integration when compared to public market asset classes.
