More and more investors demand ESG-compliant products. Good governance and transparency are crucial and increasingly investors are looking beyond the standard corporate governance issues to analyse how companies and boards manage environmental and social issues.
The emergence of the Principals for Responsible Investment (PRI), a joint initiative of the UNGC and United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI) has further increased the number of investors, both from the responsible investment and mainstream communities that are looking to better integrate ESG issues into investment decision-making.
Enhancing transparency, accountability and disclosure is something Pioneer Investments has always strongly promoted throughout its organisation. Pioneer Investments has been a member of European Sustainable and Responsible Investment Forum (Eurosif) since 2004 and is committed to the Eurosif transparency guidelines, which have clearly defined its search, investment, control and monitoring processes. It is also these beliefs that underpin Pioneer Investments’ commitment to the United Nation Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI), which was signed in March 2009.
The UNPRI are six aspirational best practice principles that suggest a policy of engagement with companies on ESG criteria, and indicate a voluntary direction to head in with regards to responsible investments. A policy of engagement means that the signatory should, where possible, participate actively, for instance at the shareholder meetings of the companies it invests in, to the decision making process on issues regarding ESG.
Further to the signature of the UNPRI, and in line with its Principle 1, Pioneer Investments has set up a working group with the task to evaluate how to implement ESG issues into investment analysis and decision-making processes. The first step and a work in progress is to make ESG information relating to the investment universe available to all equity investment managers alongside financial information. Pioneer Investments’ believes that ESG criteria will have an impact on long-term performances. By adding ESG criteria to the traditional financial criteria, the portfolio selection process will improve and will focus more and more on companies and business models, which are sustainable in the long run. Corporate sustainability and CSR reports can provide valuable forward-looking information about corporate operations, innovation, intellectual capital and management quality.
By looking forward with an eye on ESG, the investment team will be better positioned to find the companies with robust competitive advantages.
This is also very in line with Pioneer Investments’ Global Proxy Voting policy whose ultimate aim is to promote the best interest of its clients and to increase their portfolio value, considering both the short and the long-term impact and with a specific angle on the corporate governance theme.
Because Pioneer Investments is fully aware of the important role it plays, it has enriched its product offering with investment solutions designed to take into consideration ethical or sustainable criteria. The team at Pioneer Investments believes that responsible investing and good corporate practice help build trust and confidence in the markets. Pioneer Investments’ mission is to create sustainable value for its stakeholders: clients, employees, local communities, shareholders.
About Pioneer Investments
Pioneer Investments is a global investment management group with Ä185.421bn of total assets under management as at end March 2010. They provide a wide range of investment solutions including mutual funds and structured products to clients that include institutions, corporations, intermediaries and private investors around the world. With offices in 31 countries, the group employs approximately 2,000 staff.
The group has over 80 years experience in traditional investments, providing appropriate investment strategies to our clients and partners. Our flagship mutual fund, Pioneer Fund, is the third oldest mutual fund in the US and exemplifies Pioneer Investments’ history of consistently managing money and helping investors pursue their financial goals. From our global investment centres in Dublin, Boston and Singapore, we apply our bottom up investment process supported by our own internal fundamental and quantitative research capabilities.
We believe that the route to adding value is experienced portfolio managers working in concert with dedicated career analysts generating proprietary research; the addition of a strong quantitative discipline provides screening and risk management strengthens our process.
Pioneer Investments is a trading name of the Pioneer Global Asset Management S.p.A. group of companies (“PGAM”). PGAM is a wholly owned subsidiary of UniCredit S.p.A.
