From across the nation and around the world, INSIGHTS-edge brings you news, commentary and research in key areas of interest regarding ESG, Sovereign Wealth Funds and US Public Sector Pension Funds. We watch the watchers...who are watching you. ESG / Sustainability Great Recession Doesn't Slow the Greening of GE (Source: GreenBiz.com) FAIRFIELD, CT — Ecomagination continues to pay big dividends for General Electric, according to its just-released sustainability report. After investing $1.5 billion in ecomagination products since 2005 -- and growing the portfolio from 17 products to 90 -- GE has earned $18 billion in revenue on ecomagination products. The success of ecomagination has led the company to greatly increase its investment in the coming years, putting an additional $8.5 billion in R&D investments in ecomagination by 2015. Are All Components of ESG Scores Equally Important? (Source: The Financial Professionals’ Post) Our research questions whether all aspects of responsible investing are equally important for stock analysis. Can the different aspects of ESG performance—that is, performance in environmental and social sectors and corporate governance, as well as operations in “sin” areas—be combined for stock analysis? Our research is geared toward investment practitioners, and we therefore concentrate on stock returns (the main parameter affecting the performance of investment managers) and ROE (return on equity, which is arguably the most important parameter of corporate performance and stock quality). More Shareholders Call for Political, Climate Risk Disclosure: A Post-Season Review of 2010 Environmental and Social Proxy Proposals (Source: RiskMetrics Group) During the 2010 US proxy season, shareholder resolutions seeking enhanced disclosure on climate change and sustainability attracted greater approval than in years past. 2010 also saw increased support for proposals that ask companies to report on their political contributions. Another hopeful sign was the withdrawal of an unprecedented number of environmental and social resolutions, as more companies agreed to address such issues before they came to a vote. Sovereign Wealth Funds For a sovereign wealth fund (Source: The Economic Times – India) Should India create a sovereign wealth fund? The debate has been on for the last four years, with those in favor hitting a wall broadly in the shape of the redoubtable former RBI governor Y V Reddy. Mr Reddy’s opposition notwithstanding, there is merit in the proposal, provided we can devise an institutional mechanism that can deploy the funds with integrity and flexibility. Greece courts Libya sovereign wealth fund (Source: Reuters Africa) TRIPOLI- Greece is inviting Libya's sovereign wealth fund to help rescue its spluttering economy by investing in energy, real estate and privatizations of state firms, Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Spyros Kouvelis said. Greek officials have been discussing investment opportunities with officials from the Libyan Investment Authority, the oil exporter's $65 billion sovereign wealth fund, Kouvelis told Reuters on a visit to Tripoli. UBS's Keeley Discusses Sovereign-Wealth Funds: Video (Source: Washington Post) Terrence Keeley, global head of sovereign client services at UBS AG, discusses investment strategy for sovereign-wealth funds. Keeley talks with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (This is an excerpt of the full interview. Source: Bloomberg | Coming Soon… We are in the process of upgrading INSIGHTS-edge, including the addition of many more profiles, identification of ESG critical issues of importance to corporations and investors, adding to the toolbox (twitter, customized email alerts and more). You will see the 2.0 version soon. And, we are rebranding the platform to better identify the focus of our efforts:SustainabilityHQTM will be here September 1, 2010. Contents © 2009 All Rights Reserved Copyrights for other providers are noted where appropriate. Please credit the source if quoted. |
US Public Sector Pension Funds Self-Dealing Threatens Florida Pensions (Source: Forbes) Are public pension funds safe from public officials? Not if personal trading practices revealed recently in the Saint Petersburg Times are to be believed. As a former Securities and Exchange Commission attorney and investigator of money management abuses, I was disturbed to see the revelations regarding the Florida State Board of Administration's executive director and chief investment officer, Ashabel C. Williams Jr. As overseer of the Small Business Administration's (SBA) $134 billion state pension fund, Williams disclosed that he has financial stakes in several hedge funds, including three managed by Fir Tree Partners, a New York firm where he handled investor relations for almost a decade. AIG Settles with Pension Funds (Source: National Underwriter ) American International Group Inc. has accepted a proposed class-action settlement agreement that calls for it to pay $725 million to Ohio and Florida public pension funds. A group of plaintiffs led by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, and the Ohio Policy and Fire Pension Fund filed the suit in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York. CalPERS Reports Preliminary Fiscal Year Gain of 11.4 Percent Fund at $200 Billion (Source: CalPERS) SACRAMENTO, CA – The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has reported an 11.4 percent return in preliminary estimates for the one-year period that ended June 30, 2010. The upturn for the 2008-09 fiscal year exceeded the long-term annualized earnings target of 7.75 percent, which CalPERS has attained over the past 20 years. Watching the Watchers FTSE4Good Index Series Managed by Financial Times Headquarters: London, England Established: Launched July 2001
KEY PARTNERS: Ethical Investment Research Service (EIRIS) and other international partners OVERVIEW / MISSION: From FTSE: “The FTSE4Good Index Series has been designed to measure the performance of companies that meet globally recognized corporate responsibility standards, and to facilitate investment in these companies. Transparent management and criteria alongside the FTSE brand make FTSE4Good the index of choice for the creation of Responsible Investment products.” FTSE4Good was designed for use by investors and researchers interested in environmentally and socially responsible companies. The index provides performance benchmarks and standards. FTSE also sees the series as “a reference tool to provide companies with a transparent and evolving global corporate responsibility standard to aspire to and surpass.” |