Nordea Asset Management: Meet the Responsible Investments Team

Nordea Asset Management has one of the largest and most experienced responsible investment teams in Europe: 20 dedicated ESG analysts from academia, independent organisations, and investment circles.

To stay at the forefront of responsible investing (RI), the team — set up in 2009 and headed by Eric Pedersen — continuously refines its ESG approach in keeping with the increasing complexity, depth and scope of the field.

The strength of NAM’s approach is that its investment teams and RI team are fully integrated — ESG analysts sit side-by-side with equities and fixed-income teams. Fund managers are involved throughout the research process and directly tie results to their investment decisions.

Besides being fully integrated with NAM’s investment boutiques managing ESG products, the team carries out research, active ownership, and represents NAM in international RI initiatives.

Nordea Asset Management’s RI team is subdivided into five units.

• The Active Ownership team is responsible for NAM’s engagement activities, as well as for driving the Responsible Investment Committee agenda and RI Policy development. This group also works with the corporate governance team on proxy voting.

• The Climate group maintains focus on climate change factors and policies, implementation and reporting on TCFD recommendations, and the firm’s membership and obligations under the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative.

• The ESG Private Equity team supports NAM’s private equity collaboration with Trill Impact.

• The ESG Products & Research team carries out company-specific ESG research and engagement for NAM’s ESG funds, as well as product development.

• The ESG Quant team develops and maintains NAM’s proprietary ESG scoring model, as well as advanced applications of ESG data.

The team maintains both a broad RI coverage and a particular focus on NAM’s ESG-enhanced strategies, working closely with their respective portfolio management teams. Members frequently participate in client meetings and engagements — in 2020, the team led 924 engagements and voted in 701 AGMs. In 2021, NAM ramped up its voting activity — over 90 percent of its holdings were voted on, with about 10 percent of votes going against management. Votes related to climate and social issues were prioritised.

Through the STARS funds, the team contributes to the analysis of the holdings and engages with companies and portfolio managers.

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