Integrated environmental, social and governance (ESG) assets managed by Allianz Global Investors have reached €116 billion.
As ESG becomes a central theme for investors and shareholders, the global active investment manager also announced that all of the €524 billion of assets it currently manages are integrated for ESG, SRI impact (€22 billion) or “ESG informed” (€380 billion).
Last year Allianz voted at 7,961 shareholder meetings and on 83,488 proposals from management and shareholders – up 5,794 and 61,618 respectively from 2016.
Allianz went against the grain by voting against management with at least one resolution at 68% of shareholder meetings in 2017.
Andreas Utermann, chief executive and global chief investment officer of Allianz Global Investors, said the firm takes a “very rigorous” approach to its integrated ESG labelling.
“Each portfolio team is responsible for questioning potential holdings with low ESG ratings and for contributing to our internal ‘digital debate’ about companies’ ESG risks,” said Utermann.
“This internal crowdsourcing ensures that our understanding of ESG risks is superior to simply relying on third party ratings, and allows us to challenge those companies who need it most when it comes to discharging our stewardship responsibilities,” he added.
©2018 funds europe
