New White Paper from Breckinridge Capital Advisors Examines the Value of Corporate Bond ESG Analysis

BOSTON, Feb. 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Breckinridge Capital Advisors, a Boston-based high-grade fixed income manager with over $20 billion under management, has released a new white paper that examines its environmental, social and governance "ESG" analysis efforts on corporate bond investments.

Breckinridge's white paper findings include:

• Integrating ESG into its research process has been additive to its efforts to mitigate and appropriately price risk
• ESG analysis exhibits a low positive correlation with credit agency ratings
• ESG research is enhanced through engagement calls with corporate borrowers
• A company that works to manage its material ESG risks may be a more stable credit and a better investment

Nick Elfner, Breckinridge's Director of Corporate Bond Research, says that, "Traditional credit research may be insufficient in properly assessing risk. In today's consumer driven economy, the market has increasingly placed a premium on corporations' intangible assets such as brand and reputation. Business risks such as controversies, impacts to reputation and externalized costs can affect present and future bond performance."

"In addition to more widely recognized ESG risks such as resource utilization and governance policies, the assessment of social factors, including supply chain standards, labor practices and product safety, is increasingly meaningful to investors–particularly over the medium to long-term," said Rob Fernandez, Vice President of Credit Research. "To help improve risk adjusted returns, Breckinridge looks to invest in credits that have demonstrated sound ESG management practices in an increasingly scrutinized marketplace."

Breckinridge's corporate bond ESG research framework combines aggregated data from MSCI, GMI, Bloomberg, and Sustainalytics with calculations Breckinridge has created in-house to evaluate extra-financial ESG factors.

Breckinridge's white paper is available free of charge at:
http://www.breckinridge.com/insights/whitepapers/esg_integration_in_corporate_esg/

About Breckinridge Capital Advisors:
Breckinridge Capital Advisors is a Boston-based investment advisor specializing in the management of high-grade fixed-income portfolios for institutions and private clients. Working through a network of investment consultants and advisors, Breckinridge offers municipal, corporate, government and sustainable bond strategies in customized separate accounts.

For further information on Breckinridge, please visit our web site at www.breckinridge.com 

SOURCE Breckinridge Capital Advisors