Investment
US$1 trillion Asset Owner Platform launches solution for identifying SDG-investments – Canada NewsWire
AMSTERDAM, July 6, 2020 /CNW/ – APG, AustralianSuper, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) and PGGM have jointly established the Sustainable Development Investments Asset Owner Platform (SDI AOP). The platform’s standard and artificial-intelligence driven data enables investors to assess companies on their contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The product will be available via distribution partner Qontigo.
Solving data challenges
Global investors increasingly consider the SDGs relevant to their investment strategy, policy, asset allocation, investment decisions and active ownership, according to research by the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). However, a lack of quality data to identify contributions to the SDGs has been an impediment for investors, and companies struggle to adapt their disclosures to meet investor needs. By providing a globally consistent SDG measurement framework, the SDI Asset Owner Platform helps investors to imbed the SDGs into their investment processes.
Shared understanding of Sustainable Development Investments (SDIs)
The SDI AOP allows asset owners and their managers to connect around the shared objective of measuring and understanding their portfolio investments’ contributions to the SDGs. These goals, set by the United Nations in 2015, aim for a better, more prosperous world, by addressing urgent global issues such as water scarcity, healthcare access, and protecting the environment. Investments in companies whose products or services contribute to the realization of the SDGs are called Sustainable Development Investments (SDIs).
AI-driven actionable insights
The SDI Asset Owner Platform provides a common definition, taxonomy, and data source for investments into the SDGs. Powered by AI-technology, data science company Entis generates SDI classifications for 8,000 companies to date. This enables investors to assess their global capital markets’ portfolios on their contribution to the SDGs and to report to their clients and external stakeholders transparently and consistently, using a common and auditable standard. The SDI classifications will be commercially available through Qontigo. The SDI definition and taxonomy are public and equally applicable to private market investments.
Asset-owner led platform
The SDI AOP is asset owner-led and asset owners make all methodological choices. The platform builds on the direct input and feedback from asset owners and their managers, and feeds the participating asset owners’ policy and investment needs into the assessment process. Subscribers and other stakeholders will also be invited to provide feedback. The SDI Asset Owner Platform will host a virtual event in September to provide interested investors with additional insight into the workings of the platform.
Commitment to the SDGs
The participating asset owners believe it is essential to invest into the SDGs, and to do so at scale. In September 2019, APG and PGGM, at the behest of their pension fund clients ABP, bpfBOUW and PFZW, announced their cooperation to set up the SDI Asset Owner Platform. These pension funds, among them the two largest in the Netherlands, have set ambitious targets for investing in the SDGs. AustralianSuper and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) have since joined the platform. The SDI AOP welcomes investors across the globe to subscribe, creating a critical mass of investors who together define the meaning of investing in the SDGs.
Claudia Kruse, Managing Director Global Responsible Investment & Governance, APG
“The SDGs are global and launching this standard with asset owners from three continents shows our commitment to contribute to the SDGs, and we look forward to extending the collaboration. SDGs and AI-based technology are at the forefront of innovation. This investment is part of our commitment to our clients on whose behalf we invest in order to provide affordable pension in a sustainable world.”
Andrew Gray, Director ESG and Stewardship, AustralianSuper
“As a founding member of the SDI AOP, AustralianSuper strongly welcomes the opportunity to jointly establish a global standard for investors to identify sustainable development investments. The platform will progress how we assess and engage with investee companies on their SDG contribution, measurement and reporting. This will promote real world sustainable outcomes which are vital for creating long-term value for beneficiaries.”
Jennifer Coulson, Vice President ESG, BCI
“Standardization of data is one of the biggest challenges facing the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) landscape. For this reason, we are excited to be part of this asset-owner led initiative which sets a global standard on SDG contributions for all investors and brings consistency and comparability to company-level data. This is the type of quality data that BCI relies on when making investment decisions that are required to generate value-added returns for our clients.”
Eloy Lindeijer, Chief Investment Management, PGGM
“For PGGM this platform is an important next step in a process to mobilize ever more institutional capital around the big challenges of our time, as described in the SDGs. By collaborating with asset owners from different continents we hope that this SDI AOP will contribute to being a global standard for investors.”
Sebastian Ceria, Chief Executive Officer, Qontigo
“The application of transparent rules-based methodologies, common definitions, taxonomies and strong data are the bedrock elements required for effective sustainable investing. We are proud to be a part of the SDI Asset Owner Platform’s efforts to enhance the ability of investors to achieve their commendable goals in sustainable investing.”
Wim Scheper, Managing Director, Entis
“Contributing to the development of a global standard for SDG investments is truly inspiring. It will guide the decision-making by investors and companies towards a more sustainable world.”
About APG
APG is the largest pension delivery organization in the Netherlands; its approximately 3,000 employees provide executive consultancy, asset management, pension administration, pension communication and employer services. APG performs these services on behalf of (pension) funds and employers in the sectors of education, government, construction, cleaning and window cleaning, housing associations, energy and utility companies, sheltered employment organizations, and medical specialists. APG manages approximately €512 billion/ US$576 billion (April 2020) in pension assets for the pension funds in these sectors. APG works for approximately 21,000 employers, providing the pension for one in five families in the Netherlands (about 4.6 million participants). APG has offices in Amsterdam, Heerlen, Brussels, New York and Hong Kong. APG’s largest client, civil service and teachers fund ABP, has set the target to invest 20% of AUM into the SDGs by 2025.
More information: www.apg.nl/en
About AustralianSuper
AustralianSuper is a profit for member pension fund that invests the retirement savings of its 2.2 million members to help them achieve their best possible retirement outcome. AustralianSuper is Australia’s largest pension fund, managing €106.7 billion/US$118.7 billion in assets as at 31 May 2020. AustralianSuper manages the assets of one in every 10 working Australians, with more than 300,000 businesses making contributions on behalf of employees.
More information: www.australiansuper.com
About BCI
With C$171.3 billion of managed assets as of March 31, 2020, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) is a leading provider of investment management services to British Columbia’s public sector and one of Canada’s largest asset managers. BCI generates the investment returns that help their institutional clients build a financially secure future. With a global outlook, BCI seeks investment opportunities that convert savings into productive capital that will meet their clients’ risk/return requirements over time. BCI invests across a range of asset classes: fixed income; mortgages; public and private equity; real estate; infrastructure; and renewable resources.
More information: www.bci.ca
About PGGM
PGGM is a cooperative Dutch pension fund service provider. Institutional clients are offered: asset management, pension fund management, policy advice and management support. On December 31, 2019 PGGM had €252 billion in assets under management and was administrating pensions of 4.4 million participants. Around 750,000 workers in the Dutch healthcare are connected to PGGM&CO, our members organization. Either alone or together with strategic partners, PGGM develops future solutions by linking together pension, care, housing and work.
About Qontigo
Qontigo is a financial intelligence innovator and a leader in the modernization of investment management, from risk to return. The combination of the group’s world-class indices and best-of-breed analytics, with its technological expertise and customer-driven innovation, enables its clients to achieve competitive advantage in a rapidly changing marketplace. Qontigo’s global client base includes the world’s largest financial products issuers, capital owners and asset managers. Created in 2019 through the combination of Axioma, DAX and STOXX, Qontigo is part of Deutsche Börse Group, headquartered in Eschborn with key locations in New York, Zug and London.
More information: www.qontigo.com
About Entis
Entis is a data science company specialized in unstructured text processing to create investable insights for asset managers. Using text documents such as annual reports, company webpages or patents, Entis classifies companies on their contribution to the UN SDGs. Entis furthermore provides services in the area of thematic investing and alpha research. Our service offering is enabled via our scalable data-platform and advanced pattern-recognition technologies.
More information: www.entis.ai
SOURCE British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI)
For further information: and/or requests for interviews with Claudia Kruse, Managing Director Responsible Investment & Governance at APG, please contact: Dick Kors (media relations APG), Phone: +31 (0)6 34 02 07 51, E-mail: [email protected]
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(Bloomberg) — Deutsche Bank AG relied on its traders and investment bankers to make up for a slowdown in income from lending, as Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing seeks to deliver on an ambitious revenue goal.
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Fixed income trading rose 7% in the first quarter, more than analysts had expected and better than most of the biggest US investment banks. Income from advising on deals and stock and bond sales jumped 54%.
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Revenue for the group rose about 1% as the prospect of falling interest rates hurt the corporate bank and the private bank that houses the retail business.
Sewing has vowed to improve profitability and lift revenue to €30 billion this year, a goal some analysts view with skepticism as the end of the rapid rate increases weighs on revenue from lending. In the role for six years, the CEO is cutting thousands of jobs in the back office to curb costs while building out the advisory business with last year’s purchase of Numis Corp. to boost fee income.
“We are very pleased” with the investment bank, Chief Financial Officer James von Moltke said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. The trends of the first quarter “have continued into April,” he said, including “a slower macro environment” that’s being offset by “momentum in credit” and emerging markets.
While traders and investment bankers did well, revenue at the corporate bank declined 5% on lower net interest income. Private bank revenue fell about 2%. Both units benefited when central banks raised interest rates over the past two years, allowing them to charge more for loans while still paying relatively little for deposits.
With inflation slowing and interest rates set to fall again, that effect is reversing, though markets have scaled back expectations for how quickly and how deep central banks are likely to cut. That’s lifted shares of Europe’s lenders recently, with Deutsche Bank gaining 25% this year.
“Deutsche Bank reported a reasonable set of results,” analysts Thomas Hallett and Andrew Stimpson at KBW wrote in a note. “The investment bank performed well while the corporate bank and asset management underperformed.”
–With assistance from Macarena Muñoz and Oliver Crook.
(Updates with CFO comments in fifth paragraph.)
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Welcome to CB’s personal-finance advice column, Make It Make Sense, where each month experts answer reader questions on complex investment and personal-finance topics and break them down in terms we can all understand. This month, Damir Alnsour, a lead advisor and portfolio manager at money-management platform Wealthsimple, tackles eco-friendly investments. Have a question about your finances? Send it to [email protected].
Q: It’s Earth Month! And… there’s a climate crisis. How can I invest in companies and portfolios funding causes I believe in?
Earth Day may have been introduced in 1970, but today it’s more relevant than ever: In a 2023 survey, 72 per cent of Canadians said they were worried about climate change. Along with carpooling, ditching single-use plastics and composting, you can celebrate Earth Month this year by greening your investment portfolio.
Green investing, or buying shares in projects, companies, or funds that are committed to environmental sustainability, is an excellent way to support projects and businesses that reflect your passions and lifestyle choices. It’s growing in favour among Canadian investors, but there are some considerations investors should be mindful of. Let’s review some green investing options and what to look out for.
Green Bonds
Green bonds are a fixed-income instrument where the proceeds are put toward climate-related purposes. In 2022, the Canadian government launched its first Green Bond Framework, which saw strong demand from domestic and global investors. This resulted in a record $11 billion green bonds being sold. One warning: Because it’s a smaller market, green bonds tend to be less liquid than many other investments.
It’s also important to note that a “green” designation can mean a lot of different things. And they’re not always all that environmentally-guided. Some companies use broad, vague terms to explain how the funds will be used, and they end up using the money they raised with the bond sale to pay for other corporate needs that aren’t necessarily eco-friendly. There’s also the practice of “greenwashing,” labelling investments as “green” for marketing campaigns without actually doing the hard work required to improve their environmental footprint.
To make things more challenging, funds and asset managers themselves can partake in greenwashing. Many funds that purport to be socially responsible still hold oil and gas stocks, just fewer of them than other funds. Or they own shares of the “least problematic” of the oil and gas companies, thereby touting emission reductions without clearly disclosing the extent of those improvements. As with any type of investing, it’s important to do your research and understand exactly what you’re investing in.
Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) and Impact Investing
SRI and impact investing portfolios hold a mix of stocks and bonds that are intended to put your money towards projects and companies that work to advance progressive social outcomes or address a social issue—i.e., investing in companies that don’t wreak havoc on society. They can include companies promoting sustainable growth, diverse workforces and equitable hiring practices.
The main difference between the two approaches is that SRI uses a measurable criteria to qualify or disqualify companies as socially responsible, while impact investing typically aims to help an enterprise produce some social or environmental benefit.
Related: Climate Change Is Influencing How Young People Invest Their Money
Some financial institutions use the two approaches to build well-diversified, low-cost, socially responsible portfolios that align with most clients’ environmental and societal preferences. That said, not all portfolios are constructed with the same care. As with evaluating green bonds, it’s important to remember that a company or fund having an SRI designation or saying it partakes in impact investing is subjective. There’s always a risk of not knowing exactly where and with whom the money is being invested.
All three of these options are good reminders that, even though you may feel helpless to enact environmental or social change in the face of larger systemic issues, your choices can still support the well-being of society and the planet. So, if you have extra funds this April (maybe from your tax return?), green or social investing are solid options. As long as you do thorough research and understand some of the limitations, you’re sure to find investments that are both good for the world and your finances.
Investment
MOF: Govt to establish high-level facilitation platform to oversee potential, approved strategic investments
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KUALA LUMPUR: A meeting with 70 financial fund investors and corporate members at the recently concluded Joint Investors Meeting in London has touched on the MADANI government’s immediate action to stimulate strategic investment in important technologies, according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
In a statement today, it said that the government is serious about making investments a national agenda through the establishment of a high-level investment facilitation platform to ensure the implementation of potential and approved strategic investments through a “Whole of Government” approach.
Minister of Finance II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan (pix), who led the Malaysian delegation to the Joint Investors Meeting from April 20 to 22, said that the National Investment Council (MPN) chaired by the Prime Minister is an integrated action that reflects how serious the government is in making Malaysia an investment hub in the region.
Among the immediate actions taken by the government is establishing the National Semiconductor Strategic Committee (NSSTF) to facilitate cooperation between the government, industry players, universities, and relevant stakeholders to place the Malaysian semiconductor industry at the forefront and ensure the continued growth of the electronics & electrical industry, especially the semiconductor sector, as a major contributor to the Malaysian economy.
The government also aims to empower Malaysia as a preferred green investment destination as well as remove barriers and bureaucracy in the provision and accessibility to renewable energy, especially for the new technology industry, including data centres, said Amir Hamzah.
He also said that the country’s investment prospects have reached an extraordinary level, with approved investments surging to RM329.5 billion in 2023 from RM268 billion in 2022.
He said about 74 per cent of manufacturing projects approved between 2021 and 2023 have been completed or are in process.
In addition, Amir Hamzah said the greater initial stage construction work completed in 2023 (RM31.5 billion) and 2022 (RM26.3 billion) shows a positive trend for future investment opportunities.
“From a total of 5,101 investment projects approved in 2023, as many as 81.2 per cent or 4,143 projects are in the services sector, 883 projects in the manufacturing sector, and 75 projects in other related sectors,” he said.
Before this, Amir Hamzah met with international investors in New York and Washington to clarify the direction of the implementation of the MADANI Economic framework to improve investors’ confidence in Malaysia’s economic level and strengthen the perception and investment sentiment of foreign investors towards the country.
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