The 18th China SIF invited Narina Mnatsakanian, the Senior Advisor from MN, one of the largest pension fund management institutions in Netherlands; and Naheeda Rashid, the Asian and New Market Director of HEOS, a UK fund management corporation.
According to Narina and Naheeda, pension funds could implement responsible investing by doing research in the early stage, communicating with companies in the portfolio and advocating government policies. After the investment, the monitoring of ESG performance could be relied on information disclosed voluntarily by companies in their CSR report and financial report etc., or on independent analysis from a third party, such as Trucost, CDP and Sustainalytics. Once they found a serious allegation of a company, the first step for a pension fund is not divestment, but engaging with the company. The final divestment decision needs to be made by clients, based on the information provided by pension fund managers.
Naheeda raised an example of engaging on environment improvement. A multi-national company had issued its annual target which was proved by HEOS to be inconsistent and unpractical. After some internal investigation, the company admitted the mistake and adjusted its target afterward. ‘We believe the best practice of companies is to explain why they set the target and how to achieve it’, said Naheeda.
The influence of individual institution is quite limited, but investors can join initiatives together to promote responsible investing. According to Naheeda, in order to increase the influence on listed companies, pension funds have to be smart investors and build relationship with various stakeholders.
Guests：
Narina Mnatsakanian, Senior Advisor, MN
Naheeda Rashid, Asian and New Market Director, HEOS
Original Report: http://csr.stcn.com/2014/0721/11580763.shtml
