But showing our cards in this way, we are open to the fact that you may see it differently. In any case, we believe that openness has an intrinsic value – just as we are concerned with openness in the companies we are considering investing in. In the business jargon, we call it transparency.
Let's just admit it right away: this is not altruism. We think that it is right for Pareto Asset Management – that it benefits us in the long run. Inasmuch as our asset management has a distinctly long-term perspective, it is only natural that we take environmental, social and governance aspects into account. Such factors do influence long-term value creation and sustainability.
We also believe that our management philosophy is well suited to the purpose. Active investment choices, thorough analyses of a limited number of companies and a long-term perspective form a good starting point for sustainable management. If you are serious about achieving something by way of your investments, you just can't invest with your eyes closed in a broad-based index.
“It raises many dilemmas with no clear answers, and it requires a lot of subjective judgment. ”
If this is to be done properly, it must be made committing. In 2014, we formalised our commitment by signing the UN PRI (United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment). In 2017, we became a member of Norsif, the Norwegian forum for responsible and sustainable investments, and of its Swedish sister organisation Swesif. In 2018, yours truly joined the board of Norsif, and later the same year Pareto Global Corporate Bond became the first fixed income fund in Norway and Sweden to receive the Nordic Swan Ecolabel.
The quality of our work with sustainable management is nevertheless something that we can only show in practice, whereupon it becomes evident that it is a demanding exercise. It raises many dilemmas with no clear answers, and it requires a lot of subjective judgment. It also implies that we make mistakes. Many mistakes. We learn from these mistakes and we realise that we still have a lot to learn – which will be apparent on the following pages, for better or worse.
The report includes our guidelines for responsible investments. We also provide some more detail on how we go about implementing these guidelines, and on some of the institutions and sources we utilise.
Last but not least, we provide an exposé of actual dilemmas: These companies have caused us a bit of a headache, and still do. That way you gain an impression of the trade-offs and assessments we have to make in practice. We can make mistakes, but we can not avoid making decisions. In this report you will catch a glimpse of how some of these decisions have come about.
And perhaps some we regret having made.
