On October 31, 2016 NN Investment Partners (NN IP) published the report, “The Materiality of ESG factors for emerging markets equity investment decisions: academic evidence.” Conducted in association with the European Centre for Corporate Engagement (ECCE) at Maastricht University, the authors claim it is “the first comprehensive investigation into the performance of emerging market equity portfolios using ESG criteria.”
The report concludes: “Investing in emerging markets (EM) equities with high environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings leads to better performance, when adjusted for country and sector factors.”
Key findings of the report include:
- ESG factors in emerging markets can lead to stronger performance.
- Emerging markets companies with a high ESG rating outperform those with a low rating on a risk-adjusted basis.
- Excluding companies with controversial ESG behaviour adds to overall performance as well.
On the press page of the NN IP internet site you may read a press release about the report and download the report.