About us
Responsibility
Our 20 years of experience has taught us that consumer companies which effectively address ESG issues will be the long-term winners in emerging markets. These companies are better able to drive innovation, lower operating costs, improve market access, enhance their reputation and attract the best talent.
- 2022 ESG & Constructive Ownership Review
- ESG and Constructive Ownership Approach
- Proxy Voting Policy
- Climate Change Approach
- Arisaig Next Generation Fund Impact Review
SFDR disclosures for the Arisaig Next Generation Fund can be found here.
Responsibility
ESG at Arisaig
Arisaig Partners founded. Strong focus on management quality and ‘EM portfolios that allow you to sleep at night’
First engagement letter sent to company management
Integration of CG checklist into investment process
Began integrating E and S factors into our investment process. We also commissioned external research on water stress in Asia
Arisaig is the first EM manager to become a PRI signatory
Convened ESG Forum on the retail space in South Africa
Published our first ESG Review and shared it widely
First PRI Assessment Report completed (A/A*/A*)
Winner of Responsible Investor award
Founding members of Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative
Launch of Next-Gen ESG Investment Program
Responsibility
ESG Framework
Exclusions
Due to our sector focus, we have never invested in mining, fossil fuels or weapons. We also exclude gambling, pornography and tobacco from our consumer portfolios.
Back to contents listGovernance
68-point checklist across:
- Shareholder rights
- Transparency and related-party transactions
- Audit and accounting
- Board oversight
- Executive oversight
Deep-dive into alignment of interests with owners:
- Family-owned
- Founder-owned
- State-owned/backed
- Free-floated
Sustainability
Risk management framework
Identify and analyse the 5-10 most material sustainability risks affecting each sub-sector/company
For example in the Food and Beverage sector:
- Product safety
- Supply chain footprint
- Energy management
- Water management
- Health and nutrition
- Packaging lifecycle management
Expert partners
ENGAGEMENT
Helping Good Businesses Become Better
We have built strong interpersonal relationships with our investee companies’ management teams over the years. This often allows us to – both in-person and via Engagement Letters – raise concerns, explain a decision in a proxy vote, or provide constructive advice about business sustainability issues. As a large minority shareholder, we are often contacted for our opinion in advance of a resolution being tabled. Even through disagreements we aim for constructive dialogue. If necessary, we engage with other minority shareholders and, if we feel there is insufficient appreciation of material risks, despite our efforts, we will very infrequently divest our position. This patient, constructive engagement strategy is suitable only for semi-permanent capital such as the Arisaig Funds.
- In-person and written interaction with management
- Voting on resolutions
- Meeting with experts and advisors
Education
Nurturing the Next Gen ESG Investors with a Webtoon
Through cooperation with CFA Institute and Generation Z Investment Club (“Z Club”), we launched Next-Gen ESG Investing Program (the “ESG Investing Program”). Started in 2018, Z Club is an intercollegiate organization where more than 50 students from Singapore, China and other countries manage real money portfolios to learn how to invest. For the ESG Investing Program, Arisaig led the design of a ESG-focused curriculum that consists of real investment case studies. As part of this education initiative, we also created an ESG case study webtoon about Vitasoy, which we have been invested for more than 20 years. This is the first webtoon of an ESG investment case study in history and we believe this innovative format will attract our digital-native generation.