Source: HFM ESG Summit

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

​

​

​

Source: HFM Connect

​​

Driving Strong Governance and Social Responsibility panel

​

• Evolving governance structures – firms are more focused on building a culture for both the investor and the firm. Executive boards are seeing ESG as increasingly important so there is more buy in from senior management when compared to ten years ago.

• Driving momentum within ESG – scepticism has not disappeared but instead changed. The global momentum is huge, so we have an eco-system that is increasingly ESG.

• Managing risk exposures – when speaking with investors, panellists discussed portraying emotional honesty in your firm’s role and skillset and honestly demonstrating exposures. One panellist discussed having defined portfolio and firm objectives which are not mutually exclusive. Managers should manage objectives and set a firm governance model and hold the firm accountable to their own objectives.

• Data availability – the lack of data/ incompleteness of data is known for creating issues surrounding issues around ESG. PM’s have access to data providers but only use this as a small part of research to complement existing data sets. There needs be further processing in place which teams can work on to truly understand portfolio companies.