Since the emergence of “Modern Portfolio Theory” and the “Capital Asset Pricing Model” in the late 1960s, institutional investors have taken a quantitatively driven approach to portfolio construction, looking to create portfolio diversification and obtain better risk-adjusted returns by balancing their asset-class exposures. This journey has seen several important advancements in thinking about how to optimally achieve desired results.
Funds that want to take the total portfolio approach first need to get the total portfolio view. To do that they not only need data – and lots of it – but a rock-solid understanding of exactly how they’re going to use it.
PRI award for NZ Super’s hate speech campaign
The New Zealand Superannuation Fund has taken out the PRI ‘Stewardship Initiative of the Year’ award for its campaign against Facebook, Alphabet and Twitter to monitor and delete hate speech.
The award, handed down on October 20 at the organisation’s annual conference produced from London, followed the action taken by the NZ$59.8 billion, as of June 30, 2021 (A$57.3 billion) government-owned fund after the terror attack which killed 51 people and injured a further 40 at two mosques on March 15, 2019.
The terrorist, Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant, who pleaded guilty to the crimes, had livestreamed the first shooting on Facebook and prior to the attack had published an online manifesto.
The campaign gathered 103 institutional investors together to engage with the social media companies and establish lines of accountability over hate speech and was “clearly a work in progress” the judges said.
Runners up for the award were: Willis Towers Watson; Nordea Asset Management, SHARE & NATOA and ACTIAM.
Fiona Reynolds, PRI’s chief executive who will leave the organisation this month or next after a replacement is found, said there were more than 6,000 registered participants at the conference.
She told the conference earlier that policy makers needed to be more decisive on ESG issues and investors had a role to play.
“We need to step up both our commitments and accountability if we’re to meet the net zero targets,” she said. “There needs to be more respect for human rights. We are not on track to meet human rights goals. Progress has been shocking during the [COVID] vaccination crisis.”
In terms of sustainability, there was no turning back. It was inevitable, she said.
In the other awards, the winner of the ‘ESG Improvers – an alpha-enhancing factor’ was Rockefeller Asset Management. Runners up were J.P. Morgan Asset Management; Acadian Asset Management; BNP Paribas Asset Management; and GMO.
‘ESG Research Innovation’ winner was Sustainalytics, for a project about the risks and opportunities around the global food chain. Runners up were: Ninety One and WWF, for a ‘Climate & Nature Index’; MioTech; and Insight Investments.
‘Real-world Impact Initiative of the Year’ award winner was CDC Group for a COVID response called ‘Preserve, Strengthen, Rebuild’. Runners up were: Norsad Finance; Novaxia R; the KEHATI Foundation; and UniSuper for its ‘sustainable path to 2050’.
‘Emerging Markets Initiative of the Year’ winner was Norsad Finance. Runners up were: Crea8 Capital & Cammillion; China Southern Asset Management; Harvest Fund; and SRI KEHATI.
