RPIA SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2023
OVERVIEW FIRM
26
INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT
STEWARDSHIP
Engagement Activities in 2023
As a fixed income investor, we occupy an important position among capital providers to many corporations. We believe engaging with issuers is a valuable part of our role as stewards of capital. There are unique opportunities for engagement within fixed income as outstanding debt is typically a larger portion of company balance sheets than equity, and private companies also issue debt in global capital markets. This allows fixed income asset managers to engage with influential companies not available to public equity investors. In the discussions we have with issuers, we gain insights that are not always available through a review of data or other reporting. Here, management teams share their future visions for managing ESG-related risks and opportunities, and we have the opportunity to discuss where companies can improve and to share the ESG topics that are important to our investors.
We incorporate ESG into our engagement practice by:
Through engagement, we can deepen our assessment of an issuer’s ESG profile on several fronts: • Breadth of an issuer’s disclosures across different business areas and whether meaningful metrics are tracked and reported • Quality of the information provided • Identifying industry-specific ESG factors on which to engage with issuers • Advocating for initial/increasing ESG disclosures and assisting issuers with identifying material information, gaps, and best practices based on global frameworks • Updating our understanding of the issuers’ ESG profiles we develop on an on-going basis, including our understanding of an issuers future areas of focus • Emphasizing our belief that management presentations and communications should support transparent disclosure of ESG strategy and achievements
• Forward-looking plans for ESG-related risks and opportunities • How well management teams are equipped to execute these plans
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