Bron
ABP
The Dutch civil service pension fund, Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP (ABP) has announced that it is joining the Enhanced Analytics Initiative (EAI) as a full member. As one of the largest asset owners in the world, ABP invests total funds of 187 billion on behalf of 2.4 million employers and employees of the Dutch government and the educational sector. EAI is an international collaboration between asset owners and asset managers aimed at encouraging investment research that considers the impact of extrafinancial issues on long-term company performance.
In joining EAI, ABP has committed to allocate a minimum of 5% of its annual broker
commissions to those research organizations who best analyse the material extra-financial and intangible issues that can affect a companys or a sectors performance.
Commenting on the news,
Roderick Munsters, Chairman of the board of ABP Investments and Chief Investment Officer of ABP, said: ABP believes that companies with the best sustainable strategies, which encompass financial, social, environmental and corporate governance factors, will deliver the best longterm performance. Therefore we consider it essential to integrate extra-financial information throughout our mainstream investment process. The difficulty is that while progress is being
made, good quality data and research on extra-financial issues is still broadly lacking and as a result ABP decided to join the Enhanced Analytics Initiative to actively support better investment research."
The EAI was established by a group of asset owners and fund managers committed to
promoting better sell-side research on extra-financial issues. The total assets under
management of the Initiative now exceed 656 billion and current members are AGF Asset Management, BNP Paribas Asset Management, Deutscher Investment Trust / Dresdnerbank Investment Management, Generation Investment Management, Hermes Pension Management, London Pension Fund Authority, Mistra, PGGM, RCM, SNS Reaal Group, Trades Union Congress (TUC) Superannuation Society and the Universities Superannuation Scheme.
Commenting on the announcement, David Blood, Lead Director of EAI and Managing Partner of Generation Investment Management, said: We are delighted that ABP, a significant and respected asset owner and asset manager, is putting their weight behind the Initiative. Their membership demonstrates EAIs growing
momentum in recruiting new members. ABPs membership highlights a growing impetus among fund managers to incentivise the research community to generate more in depth analysis of issues which provide meaningful insight into a companys prospects for long-term corporate out-performance.
Further details of the Enhanced Analytics Initiative are available at www.enhancedanalytics.com.
