Colonial First State Global Asset Management (‘CFSGAM’) has today launched their 10th Responsible Investment & Stewardship Report. The report also marks ten years since CFSGAM became a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment.
As part of their ongoing commitment to responsible investment, CFSGAM surveyed its staff on their investment beliefs relating to sustainability and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors to drive the firm’s development of future principles, policies and investment strategies in this area. The first phase of the review, produced with the support of the Willis Towers Watson Thinking Ahead Institute, is incorporated in the report published today.
CFSGAM engaged all of its employees globally, testing the extent of beliefs on issues including the materiality of ESG factors, the degree to which they can contribute to superior long-term performance and the wider societal purpose of investment management. Such an extensive exercise on this topic is believed be a first amongst asset managers to date. CFSGAM’s early research indicates that amongst its investment professionals:
- 80 per cent believed that considering ESG issues leads to more complete analyses and better-informed investment decisions
- An overwhelming nine out of 10 employees believed that effective stewardship can positively influence company behaviour and returns.
Mark Lazberger, Chief Executive Officer said: “Colonial First State Global Asset Management has put responsible investment and stewardship at the heart of our business, and it is pleasing to see that staff across our organisation are highly engaged and see it as intrinsic to our business culture and long-term success. The feedback and insights we have received from our staff as well as from our clients are instrumental in ensuring we continue to challenge ourselves and further improve our business.”
The report also illustrates CFSGAM’s integrated approach to responsible investment, its execution team by team and its impact across the broad range of active investment strategies. It also outlines the progress CFSGAM has made over the past 12 months.
Pablo Berrutti, Head of Responsible Investment Asia Pacific commented “Our focus in the past year has been to broaden the discussion around investment performance with a view to developing measurement models that are long-term, socially connected, active and sustainable. We have sought to address this through our disclosures and reporting as well as through our work with the Thinking Ahead Institute and Cambridge University’s Investment Leaders Group with the aim of providing our clients with a comprehensive picture of our investment beliefs, approach and our performance.”
For the third consecutive year, the report discloses the level of diversity within CFSGAM’s global investment teams, and for the first time publishes its diversity statistics across the entire organisation by gender, age and length of employment. Of its investment professionals 22 per cent are female; 30 per cent of new starters to investment teams in the last 12 months have been female with women forming over half (51 per cent) of client facing professionals.
The report also highlights that 48 per cent of staff have been with the firm for over 5 years and that in the past 12 months, 50 per cent of new employees across the business have been female.
Mark Lazberger notes “Promoting diversity is not a quick fix, it is a challenge and we are committed to stay the course.”
CFSGAM’s report can be viewed here http://ri.firststateinvestments.com/2017/
