ESG

Six years after the Paris agreement on climate change action, most of the institutional investment world and the majority of major countries agree on what needs to be done. COP26 represents a gear shift. Being billed by some investors, including Paris-based global manager Amundi Asset Management, as a “make it or break it Moment”, the…

Willis Towers Watson has formed a working group to assess the potential for what it calls a ‘new breed’ of investment management firm that invests across the equity spectrum, from private to public markets. The working group, bringing together researchers from both sectors within WTW, was established in March. The global asset consulting firm believes…

There is growing concern about the relevance of broad market indices, especially due to their poor reflection of China’s growth. The main concern should probably be managers who hug them. Whether or not it’s the index producers to blame, or managers who are not as active as they claim, an interesting angle on what is…

Big investors are increasingly looking to make a difference with their commitments towards a net zero carbon target. They don’t have to raise direct equity capital to do so. In a recent note to clients, ‘Net Zero: the role of capital markets’, global equities manager Martin Currie says there is a common misconception that without…

Calvert Research and Management and Parametric, two of Eaton Vance’s managers, have combined in Australia for the first time to manage the equities component of Rest Super’s new sustainable growth investment option. Calvert is the US-based ESG specialist acquired by Eaton Vance in 2016. Parametric, an implementation specialist manager which is one of the global…

While the consensus view of credit markets is that investors should be long, at least one credit manager, Maurice Meijers of Robeco Asset Management, takes the other side. In the global equity and fixed income manager’s quarterly outlook delivered last week (April 22), Meijers, the chief executive of the firm’s Singapore business and a fixed…

While ESG investing through equities attracts most of the limelight, fixed income is increasingly gaining the attention it deserves. The asset class is, after all, about 40 times the size of the equities market. In a webinar last week to coincide with World Earth Day (April 22), Insight Investment Australia hosted Joshua Kendall, the firm’s…

Warakirri Asset Management has cemented its position as the second-largest fund manager in Australian agriculture with the launch of a second fund in the buy/lease sector. The Warakirri Farmland Fund, launched last week (April 12), has been seeded by a European pension fund. It differentiates itself from the Warakirri Diversified Agriculture Fund (DAF) by being…

Citi has incorporated ESG scores into its global securities services data platform, Citi Velocity Clarity, allowing clients to analyse the sustainability exposure of their holdings at the portfolio and security level. It’s unique to Citi and proving popular with clients. The new capability, which Citi believes is unique among major asset servicing providers, is proving popular with clients, the firm said in…

Michael Ohlsson has become a shareholder and executive director of Evergreen Consultants, the wholesale specialist asset advisory, ratings and research business co-founded by Angela Ashton in 2016. The firm has expanded rapidly in the past five years, last year launching a separate subsidiary to concentrate on ratings and research for non-mainstream products and managers, which…