By Annabel Brodie-Smith
The nation is of course obsessed with Sunday’s big football final. Come on England! But our household is in a similar frenzy about whether Mark Cavendish will win the Tour de France’s green jersey. And more importantly will he match or even beat Eddy Merckx’s long-held record of 34 stage wins? And then there’s the Olympics coming. Hopefully a summer of British sporting triumphs beckons.
Talking of green, the investment company information on our website has a new addition, an ESG tab which turns green when your mouse hovers over it. This tab takes you to our member investment companies’ ESG policies. We’ve found many investors want to know how their investments affect the environment and society, and how the companies they invest in are run. “ESG” is a handy acronym that has been created to discuss these concerns, with the “E” standing for the environment, “S” for social, and “G” for governance.
On the site each of our member investment companies has the opportunity to describe its ESG policy so that you can select the companies that best match your preferences. The disclosures sit alongside the information on investment companies’ performance and portfolios, so you can easily incorporate ESG into your investment decisions.
Currently two thirds (66%) of members have submitted an ESG disclosure, which represents 73% of our member companies’ assets. We expect these numbers to grow as more of our members publish their disclosures. If you’d like to find out more about ESG, please do visit our ESG education page. We have a new animated video ‘What is ESG?’ which explains the relevance of ESG to investment companies, an ESG Q&A and a jargon buster, as well as ESG-related content and articles.
On a related topic, did you know that there are investment companies that seek to address homelessness, domestic abuse and social exclusion? To find out more about these watch this video where I ask the managers of Schroder BSC Social Impact Trust, Civitas Social Housing and Target Healthcare REIT what they enjoy most about their role. Their answers demonstrate the very real impact these companies can have on vulnerable people’s lives. These investment companies, known as impact investment companies, allow investors to target positive social or environmental outcomes as well as a financial return. Do read this release to learn more about the social impact investment companies.
Now it’s not long until the Olympics which starts at the end of the month in Tokyo but it’s understandably very unpopular in Japan. According to Taeko Setaishi, Investment Adviser to the Atlantis Japan Growth Fund, “The pandemic has trashed previous expectations. Lockdowns, quarantines, restrictions on the sale of alcohol in restaurants and bars have not made Tokyo a fun place to visit.” Read this piece to find out about Japanese investment company managers’ views on the impact of the Olympics, the positive corporate governance reforms and ESG.
This month our investment expert Ian Cowie weighs up the pros and cons of investing in investment companies versus individual shares. Ian has lots of experience of investing in both and has both in his ‘forever fund’. It’s a quarter of a century since Ian invested in his first investment company “ten-bagger” (a share whose price soared 10 times or more), Fleming Indian Investment Trust, now known as JPMorgan Indian. Lucky Ian! Mind you, I’m not far behind him as I started investing in investment companies 23 years ago. But I have no idea whether I have secured a ten-bagger or not – changing platforms doesn’t make it easy.
Finally, Jennifer Hill has seven great tips for investors whose star fund manager has left or is shortly leaving. Scottish Mortgage investors should sleep easy, noting Nick Wood at Quilter Cheviot’s thoughts: “What we look for is a trust with a clear succession plan, where we know exactly what will happen when the time comes for a star manager to move on and for another to step up to the plate.”
Compass is off on its summer holiday in August. Well there’s all that sport to watch. I can’t wait for my two week staycation at my new home, the barn. Of course, there are still boxes to unpack and lots to sort out, including most importantly, the office. I’m still working on the kitchen table…
I’d like to wish you all a lovely summer. Let’s hope the sun shines and we can all get out and about and enjoy ourselves.
Annabel Brodie-Smith Communications Director, AIC
