Our Approach

Returns | Transparency | Values

Returns

At Sparinvest, investing responsibly is central to our aim of providing clients with strong and sustainable long-term investment returns. Environmental, social and governance issues present companies, and countries, with a variety of opportunities and risks, and the way these are handled can materially impact long-term value. We think thoughtful understanding of the sustainability of our investments, and working to help holdings improve on issues which materially affect them, can help boost those long-term investment returns. This mindset is deeply engrained in our investment teams.

Transparency

We also recognise that many investors wish not only to see what their investments are achieving in terms of financial returns, but also to understand their impact on broader society. We are committed to providing our investors with that understanding.

Values

We also offer a variety of funds for those who wish to go further, and explicitly align their investments with personal values, or goals for wider society. This includes our Ethical range of funds. These funds do have more explicit sustainability aims, but we do not think this means compromising financial returns. On the contrary, those companies which are more pro-active in exploiting ESG opportunities, or mitigating ESG risks, can often combine a positive impact on society, with strong long-term value creation.

Our many years of experience mean that environmental, social and governance considerations are deeply integrated into our way of thinking. Investing responsibly is not a simple question of investing in only a few ’perfect’ companies, and the underlying issues are usually not black and white. So, our range of funds gives clients access to various asset classes and a diverse range of underlying securities. Our strength lies in our analysis and understanding of ESG issues, and factoring that understanding into our investment strategies. We strongly believe in working with companies to encourage sustainability and long-term value creation.

We invest responsibly across all of our funds, and use three key tools to do this: ESG Integration, Stewardship, and Exclusions. We also report on all of these activities, to provide transparency to our clients. You can read more on these tools by following the links below.

The precise way we use these tools varies a little by asset class and investment strategy. For example, a passive fund cannot integrate ESG considerations in the same way that an active, stock-picking fund can – but both funds can use Stewardship to influence holdings. Regarding exclusions, no Sparinvest funds invest in confirmed producers or distributors of controversial weapons or in state-issued securities and state owned entities that fail to pass our country screening. But we also offer some funds – such as our Ethical range - that exclude a wider range of companies. We explain these differences in our Sustainable Investment Policy.

What issues do we consider?

The issues we look at vary considerably, but materiality is key.

At the individual security level, we focus on the issues that most significantly affect the company, industry, or country, and this can vary from case to case.

At a broader level, we also consider overarching issues that typically have most potential for material impact across portfolios. This includes mega-trends such as climate change, and key governance questions such as board quality. More information and examples can be found in the various sections of this website, and in the reporting materials under Transparency.