Sanlam Investments today announced it has chosen Sustainalytics, a leading global provider of ESG research and ratings, to help enhance its investment capabilities in the UK and South Africa. Globally, there is an increased awareness of sustainable investing, an approach to investing in which environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors influence the selection and management of investments.
As part of Sanlam Investment’s investment philosophy, sustainability is embedded as a core process, resulting in more insightful research and a better understanding of the potential for companies to deliver sustainable cash flows into the future.
Tom Carroll, head of Investments and Risk at Sanlam Investments UK said, “As long-term fundamental investors we have always considered sustainable investing as critical to the long-term success of our investment teams. We are delighted to announce our collaboration with Sustainalytics, which will give our UK business the ability to incorporate ESG risk analysis into all our fundamental research, ensuring that sustainability is embedded within our directly invested funds and private client portfolios.”
Michael Jantzi, chief executive officer at Sustainalytics said, “We are honoured Sanlam has decided to use our ESG Risk Ratings to help further embed sustainability considerations into their investment decision-making processes. The firm is taking meaningful steps to look more closely at how ESG considerations can impact its clients’ investments, and we look forward to helping the firm’s various teams in this endeavour.”
Sanlam Investments subscribes to both the Code for Responsible Investing in South Africa (CRISA) and its forerunner, the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI). In doing so, the business aims to comply with international best governance practice, in particular to promote a relationship of trust between all relevant stakeholders and to contribute to the ongoing and long-term sustainability of listed companies.
Sustainalytics’ ESG Risk Ratings measure a company’s exposure to industry-specific material ESG risks, and how well a company is managing those risks. The firm’s multi-dimensional way of measuring ESG risk combines the concepts of management and exposure to arrive at a quantitative assessment of unmanaged ESG risk that is comparable both across and within industries.