Approach to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)

Petrus Advisers believes that the long-term success of portfolio companies will require corporate strategies that are fundamentally based on principles of sustainability. As value-focused investors with a mid- to long-term investment horizon, we search for opportunities where such sustainable, fair and equitable strategies exist and/or where we can contribute to improve conduct and sustainability.

Our investment philosophy aspires to embrace modern ESG criteria in order to improve the risk/return of our portfolio and the ethics of modern business conduct. It is a priority for us to understand the factors driving global ESG standards, and we aim to be at the forefront of dynamically developing ESG improvement within our investment universe. We believe investment strategies based on exclusion of ESG deficiencies and external ESG ratings do not go far enough. Also, we are not limiting ourselves solely to matters of ecology but also focus on social and governance compliance. As an activist investor in Europe since 2009, Petrus Advisers has developed a track-record of having impact, engaging with corporates and contributing to improved ESG performance as well as value creation. Based on extensive interaction with our portfolio companies as well as in-house research conducted, we have developed an ambitious and proprietary ESG framework. Driving improvements of companies’ transparency regarding ESG matters as well as ESG performance overall are important parts of our investment process, and we engage actively with management teams and supervisory boards, as well as with other stakeholders to achieve such goals. We believe that what is sustainable is ultimately fair and only if these two are fulfilled can business activities be long-term profitable.

Environmental

We are fundamentally convinced that carbon neutrality by 2050 (“Net Zero 2050”) is a key goal for our planet. As such, we are active proponents of the goals established by the Paris Agreement. Based on our own research and expertise in the energy industry, we believe the path towards Net Zero 2050 bears many uncertainties, including regulation, the participation of countries outside Europe, as well as the need to achieve and apply technological progress. To assess the contribution by specific companies to achieving Net Zero 2050, our framework analyses their relative ESG performance. Among other factors, our framework captures transparency, true ESG commitment, tie into corporate strategy, company targets and management remuneration. We use our proprietary ESG framework to monitor improvements over time and to identify strengths and weaknesses in companies’ ESG proactivity. Environmental factors that we primarily consider include GHG emissions, energy management, water consumption, waste production and resource depletion.

Social

Within the social scope of our ESG framework, we focus on employee relations, diversity and inclusion, working conditions, fair compensation of workers, training and personal development. While most companies in the European Union already comply with the guiding principles set by the UN and OECD, we nonetheless perform due diligence on social factors that matter beyond minimum standards. Since inception, our firm has annually contributed parts of its profitability to social projects. We are thus well positioned to assess the contribution of our portfolio companies to improving our society.

Governance

Good corporate governance is a key component of economic success. Many of our active campaigns historically as well as our decision making have been centred around improving or introducing good governance, in particular regarding fairness of remuneration, independence of candidates and gender diversity. A thorough assessment of incentivisation, board compositions, compliance and business ethics continues to be a major building block in our investment screening process and engagement with portfolio companies. We are proponents of the highest standards of good corporate governance and have successfully intervened on numerous occasions. Very often, we have been able to rectify misaligned incentive structures as well as weak representation of diversity and minority shareholders’ rights.

From our perspective, there is no one-size-fits-all assessment so that the factors we are stressing will vary by company and sector. Our proprietary ESG framework, which we have applied in public campaigns, specifies environmental, social and governance characteristics that we consider relevant for our core industries and companies. The framework is under constant review and development. Regulatory changes, scientific progress and other developments will be taken into account, and we will continue to be a leading agent of change in the fight for good ESG practices in European companies.

Exclude sector

We restrict ourselves from investing in securities with the following
revenue contribution thresholds ¹:

• Weapons ²: >10% of revenue (banned weapons ³ >0%),
• Tobacco production ⁴: >5% of revenue,
• Thermal coal ⁵: >30% of revenue.

We also restrict ourselves from investing in securities that have had serious violations of UN Global Compact.

¹ For the implementation of the minimum exclusion criteria, we use a list with restricted securities based on data provided by Bloomberg that is updated weekly.
² As defined by BICS Code: 17101111.
³ Weapons according to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (“Ottawa Treaty”), the Convention on the Prohibition of Cluster Munitions (“Oslo Convention”) and B- and C-Weapons pursuant to the respective UN Conventions (UN BWC and UN CWC).
⁴ As defined by BICS Code: 121012.
⁵ As defined by BICS Code: 1810151410.