ESG

The NZ Superannuation Fund has won a landmark court case that could set a high bar for activist legal challenges to its investment decisions. Any action jeopardising New Zealand’s reputation was deemed most important. In the ruling handed down in the Auckland High Court this month (March 17), Justice Woolford dismissed the move by Fadel…

As Ninety One, the former Investec Asset Management, celebrates its first year as an independently listed company, the Australian operation has also demonstrated one of the many advantages of that independence. The global parent investment bank, still the major shareholder in the global asset management firm, last week confirmed the sale of its Australian loan…

The shift in investor preference for passive over active funds continued in the last two years, but Australian investors were more resistant to the global trend, according to research from Calastone. Calastone’s latest report, ‘Tidal Forces – Can Active Funds Fight the Passive Flows?’ compiled from analysis of fund transactions across its network during the last…

The biggest single investment category for major impact investors around the world is climate related, as it is for more general ESG investing. But “true impact investing’ is different. Another global webinar this month focusing on what climate change means for investors and managers was organised by US impact advisory group Tideline. Speakers included London-based…

After five years operating as a wholesale and institutional manager, the Wellington-based Lighthouse Investment Funds has signalled the broader market with a new retail international shares offering launched this month. Flying under the colours of fund-hosting business Implemented Investment Solutions (IIS), the Lighthouse Global Equity Fund mirrors the firm’s long-running offshore shares strategy first established…

The world’s major pension systems enjoyed their strongest year, last year, for growth compared to GDP, since 1998. The bad news, of course, is that the average 11.2 per cent rise for many countries this helped by stalling or falling GDP. The annual ‘Global Pension Assets Study, 2021’ from the Thinking Ahead Institute based in…

Amundi Asset Management, Europe’s largest fund manager, has launched two strategies to build on its ESG-related offerings, a European equities and US equities fund, both of which focus on companies which are improving their ESG credentials. The three points of differentiation with the new funds are: an exclusion policy covering companies which sit outside the…

Real asset investors are turning to face the strange environment of 2021 as technological and social trends mix with a global pandemic to fast-forward fundamental changes, according to the latest AMP Capital market outlook. “Disruption has accelerated changes underway in modern living – and the pandemic is still far from over,” the AMP Capital report…

The gap between fund flows for ESG-focused funds and their regular equity, multi-asset and bond counterparts in emerging markets widened further in the past six months, according to figures from Informa Financial Intelligence, a global data provider. Informa’s EPFR (Emerging Portfolio Fund Research) database for emerging markets (EM) flows, shows that while the fund flows…

While most investment managers have worked hard at incorporating ESG philosophies into their investment processes in recent years, under the overarching aim of sustainability, marrying the practicalities with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is not as simple as it may seem. Martin Currie, a long-time advocate of the integration of ESG principles within…