Our ESG Approach

As an Asset Manager, we believe we have the opportunity to actively contribute through the investment decisions we make and engagement with investee companies, allocating money to those companies that are able to demonstrate strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials, or those that are actively transitioning their business to ensure ESG considerations are fully integrated within their operating models.

We believe that responsible investment is best embodied by the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). To confirm our approach to responsible investing, we are a signatory to the PRI and are committed to its six guiding principles.

Our Responsible Investment Process consists of two key pillars:

1. Exclusions

2. ESG Integration

Firstly, we perform a negative screen on potential investment opportunities; seeking to exclude investments in product areas that we do not wish to finance; this leads to the exclusion of companies involved in controversial weapons and tobacco products for example1.

Secondly, we require our investment teams to fully integrate ESG considerations into their investment processes.

To ensure that a robust approach is implemented, we have engaged with Sustainalytics, a global leader in ESG research and ratings. Sustainalytics’ research provides us with insight regarding product involvement and a detailed analysis of a company’s ESG risk factors.

Further, we are committed to proxy voting in the best interest of our investors and accordingly engage with the management of companies in which we invest to ensure that our investors’ assets are invested in well-managed companies which exhibit good governance and deliver shareholder value.

In order to facilitate the proxy voting process in an efficient manner, we have engaged Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”), a leading proxy voting provider. ISS recognise that in addition to financial objectives, investors also require that the companies in which they invest conduct their business in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. ISS’s Social Advisory Services division ensures that both of these objectives carry through to socially responsible voting activity.

ISS provides research and analysis covering the invested universe for all of our managed portfolios, monitoring incoming ballots, performing ballot-to account reconciliations, providing recommendations based on each agenda item and vote by proxy for any unvoted ballots through their online portal.

Recommendations and research are made available to each Investment Adviser who determines whether to accept ISS’ recommendation or to vote independently.

Full details regarding our Voting Rights Policy are available here with voting information accessible here and our Shareholder Engagement Policy is available here.

Ultimately, we want to offer our investors access to the best investment ideas, within a framework that seeks to achieve better environmental, society and governance outcomes.


1 A full list of our excluded product areas is available to download here.

As permitted under Article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on sustainability‐related disclosures in the financial services sector (the “SFDR”), E.I. Sturdza Funds plc (the “Company”) does not consider adverse impacts of investment decisions on sustainability factors on the basis that it is not a financial market participant that is required to do so given that the Company does not have on its balance sheet an average number of employees exceeding 500 during the financial year. The Company may choose at a later date to publish and maintain on this website the consideration of principal adverse impacts of investment decisions on sustainability factors.