Schroders to advance ESG cause and accelerate regional Sustainability initiatives from Singapore
Regional Centre of Excellence for Sustainability will also be established in the Lion City
Schroders Singapore is today announcing its ambitions to enhance and accelerate its Sustainability endeavours across the region. Part of this future-forward plan involves establishing a regional Centre of Excellence for Sustainability (CoES) in Singapore, which will house a dedicated team of senior ESG specialists.
Across Asia Pacific, institutional asset owners and intermediary distribution partners alike are accelerating their pace of ESG adoption. Although nascent, Schroders anticipates growing demand for Sustainability-focused strategies, catalysed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, the firm sees exciting opportunities to collaborate with clients and partners looking to advance their Sustainability priorities. As an integral part of its strategic initiative, Schroders is therefore anchoring a Centre of Excellence for Sustainability in Singapore. The dedicated senior resources will play a pivotal role in driving Asia-focused ESG research insights, innovation and impact across the region, drawing from their thought leadership in Sustainability.
The CoES will also house an ESG education hub, delivering specialist training to upskill the ESG capabilities of Schroders’ staff in Asia. More notably, this education hub will also be open to industry partners across the broader finance ecosystem, and will host training programs for both local and regional clients.
Building on this initiative, Schroders Singapore is also now officially a Founding Partner of the Singapore Green Finance Centre, a collaboration between Imperial College London and Singapore Management University, and supported by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Separately, through subsidiary BlueOrchard, Schroders has also made strides in impact investing. BlueOrchard is a leader and pioneer in the world of impact investing, having been founded in 2001 by initiative of the United Nations to run the world’s first commercial microfinance fund. The business has operations around the world, from Switzerland to Singapore. To support its growth in the region, BlueOrchard is centralising all Asia Pacific activities in Singapore, transforming the local operation into a key regional investment research and business hub.
Susan Soh, Co-Head of Asia Pacific and Singapore CEO, Schroders, said:
“There has been a sea-change of public perspective and social consciousness around Sustainability. Structural shifts in the drivers of corporate performance impacting investment returns and an exponential increase in ESG regulations are fuelling an accelerated interest in Sustainability issues in Asia and globally. Investors today choose to vote with their own pockets, and we have seen heightened inflows of funds towards ESG causes and investments globally. We expect the momentum to spill over to Asia, as capital reallocation will create interesting investment opportunities for our institutional and intermediary clients. As we speak, we already see clients in Asia looking to enhance their ESG alignment and deliver positive impact whilst generating returns.
We have incorporated Sustainability considerations into our investment processes since 2000, and responsible investing principles guide our decisions and the way we manage our investments. Today, we continue to invest and make important progress in ESG initiatives both across the firm and in Asia, where the regional centre of excellence in Singapore will play a vital role in our client partnerships and delivering their Sustainability priorities.
We are also equally delighted to support the launch of the Singapore Green Finance Centre (SGFC) as a Founding Partner. The SGFC intends to focus on Sustainability research tailored to the Asian context and building capability in green finance, and these are areas where we see immense potential for cross-sector collaboration and synergy with our goals. As a global thought leader in climate risk, we believe that we can leverage our expertise and make significant contributions to the SGFC and towards building a vibrant ecosystem in Asia. Collectively as a group with Imperial College, SMU and the other Founding Partners, we know we can make a significant impact and steer the ESG conversation forward, particularly around imperative issues such as climate change and growing the green finance sector for the region.”
Lily Choh, Deputy CEO, Singapore and Head of Institutional, Asia Pacific, Schroders, added:
“The pace of ESG adoption has accelerated tremendously across Asia in the last 6-12 months. In particular, we see a clear trend of investors moving from an exclusionary to inclusionary (positive screening) approach and integrating ESG as the third dimension of investing. Active ownership influencing company behaviour has also gained significant prominence while issues like greenwashing and lack of data robustness remain key hurdles. Against this backdrop, it is imperative that sustainable investing is anchored on robust research and analysis.
A client-centric approach to understanding our clients’ evolving priorities and needs is critical in designing solutions that align Sustainability and financial objectives. At Schroders, we have developed a unique investment platform anchored with a forward-looking proprietary toolkit that can bring together the spectrum of inputs to create investment insights and subsequently measure the impact of our investments. The establishment of a regional centre of excellence in Asia is therefore a very important initiative for us to bring an Asian lens to that process and to drive forward the multiple dialogues we are already having with our clients today. It will extend our ESG research footprint and reinforce our position as a global thought leader in Sustainability.”
As testament to Schroders’ ambition to make sustainable investing more accessible, Schroders Singapore recently launched the Schroder ISF Sustainable Multi-Asset Income fund with HSBC Singapore as the exclusive distributor. The new fund builds on two flagship sustainable funds (Schroder ISF Global Climate Change Equity and Schroder ISF Global Sustainable Growth), and is designed for mindful retail investors who want to balance income and impact. In the spirit of full transparency, this fund can and will produce in-depth reports with various Sustainability lenses, to help clients understand the impact their investments have.
###
For further information, please contact:
Ena Yow
Hume Brophy (Singapore)
Tel: +65 9852 5679
Email: ena.yow@humebrophy.com
Jerry Low
Schroder Investment Management (Singapore) Ltd
Tel: +65 6800 7641
Email: jerry.low@schroders.com
About Schroders
As a global investment manager, we actively and responsibly manage investments for a wide range of institutions and individuals, to help them meet their financial goals and prepare for the future. The world is forever changing, and with our clients at the centre of everything we do, we understand the need to continue to adapt and evolve our business in line with what matters most to our clients today, and in the future.
Our ongoing success is built on a history of experience and expertise, whereby we partner with our clients to construct innovative products and solutions across our five business areas consisting of Private Assets & Alternatives, Solutions, Mutual Funds, Institutional and Wealth Management and invest in a wide range of assets and geographies. By combining our commitment to active management and focus on Sustainability, our strategic capabilities are designed to deliver positive outcomes for our clients.
We are responsible for £525.8 billion (€578.4 billion/$649.6 billion)* assets of our clients, managed locally by 42 investment teams worldwide. As a global business with over 5,000 talented staff across 35 locations, we are able to stay close to our clients and understand their needs. We have over 200 years of experience in investment and innovation and remain committed to creating a better future by investing responsibly for our clients.
Schroders has led the charge on sustainable investing, having had a dedicated Sustainability team for over 20 years. Today, the team has 22 members, and Schroders has maintained an A+ rating for overall strategy and governance in relation to sustainable investment for the fifth year running by the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), an influential United Nations-backed global investor initiative.
Further information about Schroders can be found at www.schroders.com.
*as at 30 June 2020
About BlueOrchard Finance Ltd
BlueOrchard is a leading global impact investment manager and a member of the Schroders group. The firm is dedicated to fostering inclusive and climate-smart growth in emerging and frontier markets, while focusing on delivering returns to our investors. BlueOrchard was founded in 2001, by initiative of the UN, as the world’s first commercial manager of microfinance debt investments. The firm has built a distinct track record in offering premium impact investment solutions, including credit, private equity, and sustainable infrastructure. Being an expert in innovative blended finance mandates, the firm is a trusted partner of leading global development finance institutions. BlueOrchard has invested to date more than $7 billion for sophisticated global private and public clients, enabling tangible social and environmental impact. BlueOrchard Singapore currently serves only institutional investors. For additional information, please visit: www.blueorchard.com