Sweden’s SEB Investment Management has appointed the UK’s Hermes Investment Management to carry out engagement with companies that it invests in.
SEB, which has over €100 billion of assets under management and has an active environmental, social and governance (ESG) programme, wants to increase its dialogue with overseas companies by using Hermes EOS, which is Hermes Investment Management’s engagement and shareholder voting team.
Hermes EOS will advise on €33.15 billion of holdings comprising SEB’s global holdings outside the Nordic region.
Hermes is a fund manager owned by the British Telecom Pension Scheme and it outsources corporate governance services to other firms.
Hans Ek, head of ESG and corporate governance at SEB Investment Management, said the appointment reflected that SEB is “strengthening our sustainability dialogues with companies outside Scandinavia”.
He added: “We estimate that we’ll be able to double our number of dialogues with companies to 360, and with the good progress rate Hermes has on their engagements, this will help us create value both for the companies and our clients.”
Hermes EOS advises on €209.8 billion for clients.
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