We are pleased to showcase our Asian Equity report for 2024. In this year’s report, we provide an overview of what ESG means to our team, its importance to our approach and how we integrate ESG factors into our investment process.
Engagement continues to be a key part of our activities as active owners, and we highlight recent engagement cases studies, including in-depth due diligence and company engagement with Australian mining company, BHP, on account of MSCI ESG assigning a ‘Red’ flag controversy rating. Additionally, we discuss our presentation last year to over 100 listed company CEOs and IR representatives at a major global investment bank’s inaugural ‘Japan Engagement Partnership Day’. This feels especially pertinent given that corporate governance reform has been a major topic in Japan of late.
We also focus on country level ESG factors. Companies are affected by the environment of the countries in which they operate, and we believe that countries with improving or high ESG scores are more likely to deliver sustainable growth compared to countries with falling or low scores. We use three independent third-party indices to reflect changes in ESG performance over time.
This year’s thought pieces include an article on China’s dominance in the electric vehicle supply chain and the emergence of highly competitive EV lineups, and a report on a trip to South Korea, where the country’s Financial Services Commission has recently unveiled its corporate ‘Value-up’ programme.
As always, we believe that active management and due diligence, backed with industry expertise, can produce the best results for our clients, both in terms of capital appreciation and positive ESG outcomes. Incorporating ESG into our investment process is a dynamic and evolving process, and will continue to be going forward.
We hope that you enjoy these insights into our activities and achievements, and we welcome any feedback on how we can improve our future efforts.