NCRAM believes that consideration of sustainability is congruent with our Strong Horse investment philosophy. ESG analysis helps us to invest in stronger companies, identify improving credits, and avoid defaults.
We consider ESG issues to be important factors when analyzing a company’s sustainability and investment prospects, and the study of these issues is incorporated into our investment process. We will consider a company’s record in how they treat the environment, how they treat their employees, how they treat the communities in which they operate, and their impact on their customers. We consider climate change and carbon emissions as part of our environmental risk analysis, and we incorporate a company’s environmental record into our assessment of the issuer. In addition, we will consider their track record in behaving fairly towards bondholders and other investors. To augment our internal research, NCRAM has engaged Sustainalytics to provide external research on ESG factors. NCRAM also has frequent meetings and dialogue with debt issuers, and our analysts and portfolio managers will discuss ESG factors with issuers at those forums.
We are committed to continuing to work with our clients and within the broader investment management industry to invest responsibly in our existing portfolios and going forward.