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We aim to contribute to a sustainable economy and society by improving our environmental, social and governance standards. We aim to hold our own business to the same standards that we expect of the companies we invest our clients’ capital in. By doing so, we reinforce our position as responsible investors.
We believe that organisations have legal, moral and commercial obligations to respect human rights and remediate any implications on human rights in their operations and supply chains.
We are committed to fostering an inclusive and equitable culture where diversity can thrive. We believe this will deliver better outcomes for our people, our clients and society, and it is the right thing to do.
We know we need to pivot our approach if we are to minimise the environmental impacts of our business operations, no matter where our offices are based. In March 2022, we announced a firm-wide target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across our business operations in line with a target of net zero emissions by 2030 (or sooner).
Read regular news updates, research papers, investment strategy updates and thought pieces from our leading investment experts.
Making a difference to the communities where we live, work and invest through philanthropy has been a focus for our business for over a decade. This is also an important part of our corporate value of ‘care’ to societies in which we operate. The First Sentier Foundation is our philanthropic initiative, founded in 2012 and dedicated to building sustainable lives through education.
With the support of MUFG Bank, Ltd., (MUFG Bank), First Sentier Investors has launched a private debt capability focused initially on loans to the renewable energy sector.
Most investment professionals believe that neither ESG nor long-term factors are efficiently priced by markets. Around 75% believe that investors are over sensitive to short-term factors. A similar number believe that risks and opportunities associated with ESG externalities are not being captured in market values.
We believe financial markets, critical to society’s ability to function, are under threat. For too long, it has been widely accepted that short-term performance, growth, risks and financial returns should be maximised at the expense of environmental and social outcomes.
Australia currently has a unique opportunity to set up a framework that can support investment aligned with the nation’s sustainability goals, by means of the Australian Sustainable Finance Strategy (“the Strategy”).
American Listed Infrastructure (ALI) has seen a significant increase in Merger and Acquisition (M&A) activity. Private market and foreign corporate buyers are paying premiums of 25% to listed markets, often for non-controlling stakes. This M&A illustrates the intrinsic value available to investors in the ALI asset class. We expect M&A will continue for a number of years. This will deleverage balance sheets, reduce equity needs and recycle capital from non-core to core activities, thereby raising the quality of the ALI asset class.
Many listed infrastructure companies provide customers with cleaner and greener services than the alternatives. This paper looks at how US-listed railroads, electric and water utilities are reducing carbon emissions, improving safety and increasing customer satisfaction. We believe these sustainability benefits are going to be valued more highly in the future by customers, regulators, politicians and investors.
This paper outlines the responsible investing approach adopted by various First Sentier Investors investment teams across the globe. It involves a holistic way of thinking that addresses multiple impacts across multiple environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures. We believe it can lead to better long‑term financial and sustainability outcomes, across more measures, than more traditional frameworks.
We pose the question – what if we could develop a way of predicting which companies are more likely to be suffering distress, and which were not? The idea contains three parts: A. Certain individual observations or metrics can separately tell us about stocks that might – in the near future – find themselves in trouble. B. If we combine enough of these metrics together – without overfitting – we can get synergy between the factors. C. If we build a smart model that is designed specifically to target corporate distress, then we can apply and refine the predictions from the metrics in a better way.
Over the last 5 years, China has been on the rise within the Emerging Markets. We have all heard the story of the China Dragon and the impressive growth that the Chinese economy has been able to achieve relative to other large economies since the early 1990s. Even more recently as its growth has reduced it is still achieving more than double the growth of the United States. We believe the increase in regulatory risk from both the US and domestically in China has been a large contributor to this fall. The question for investors is this: will it continue and where does the next risk lie?
We recently spent several weeks in the US visiting listed infrastructure management teams, regulators, politicians, industry associations and conducting asset tours. The following paper provides an overview of our findings.
We crossed six US states meeting over 70 infrastructure management teams as well as customers and suppliers at three conferences. We visited three corporate head offices, several regulators and toured the country’s largest nuclear power plant.
2024 was a year marked by global inflation and economic growth concerns against a backdrop of worldwide elections. As we head into 2025, volatility will remain an enduring constant.
After decades of flat electricity demand for US utilities, the industry is now seeing unprecedented demand as growth in data centers / AI, electrification, onshoring and electric vehicles outweighs energy efficiency gains. One utility executive stated: “Seeing all these customers wanting 24/7 load and willing to pay for it – it is every utility’s dream”.
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