First Sentier Investors setting first nature targets as a Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures Adopter

SYDNEY and NEW YORK, Oct. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- First Sentier Investors, a leading global investment manager, today announced that it is setting its first nature targets as a Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) Adopter, in the lead up to the inaugural Global Nature Positive Summit hosted in Sydney this week.

The TNFD offers recommendations and guidance to organizations and provides them with risk management and disclosure frameworks to act on evolving nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities. TNFD Adopters have registered their intention to making public disclosures in their corporate reporting in the financial years 2023, 2024 or 2025 against the TNFD Recommendations.

Kate Turner, Global Head of Responsible Investment at First Sentier Investors, said: "As a TNFD Adopter, we continue our role as responsible active stewards of our clients' capital. We are pleased to affirm our commitment to improving nature reporting and ongoing engagement with investee companies to reduce nature-related impacts, mitigate risks, identify and value dependencies and seize opportunities.

"These targets are also a natural step forward for First Sentier Investors, since becoming a signatory of the Finance for Biodiversity (FfB) Pledge in 2021. As part of our FfB pledge to set goals to reduce our organization's impacts on nature and biodiversity, we are pleased to formalize the progress we have made as a business in this area by setting our inaugural nature targets," continued Turner.

First Sentier Investors' initial nature targets will be published later this week. Disclosure on the organization's progress against these targets will be integrated into its climate and nature report, published in 2025. As a member of the FfB Foundation's Target Setting Working Group, the targets are aligned with Initiation Targets recommended in the Nature Target Setting Framework for Asset Managers and Asset Owners prepared by the FfB Working Group in 2024.

First Sentier Investors' nature targets for 2025 will span three key areas:

• Governance: Disclose a clear firm-wide governance structure for nature, outlining board oversight and management responsibilities in an integrated manner with the existing governance structure for broader environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.  
• Assessment: Conduct and publicly disclose an assessment of dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities for in-scope investments (listed equities and corporate bonds).  
• Training: All relevant employees will have completed training on the relation between nature loss and investment.  

Joanne Lee, Responsible Investment Director at First Sentier Investors, said: "While these will be initial targets, they set a clear direction for our firm's future endeavors. They build on the progress that the business has already made in this area and align with the TNFD's four disclosure pillars."

The nature targets are an extension of the firm's work to date. It has established board oversight and management responsibilities within its ESG and climate governance structure, trained investment teams on nature since 2022 and disclosed sector level impacts and dependencies across its listed equities investments in its 2022 and 2023 Responsible Investment Report.

"Importantly, we believe in the role that investors play in directing global financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes and toward nature-positive outcomes which aligns with the TNFD's objective," concluded Lee.

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About First Sentier Investors 

First Sentier Investors is a global asset management group providing high quality, differentiated and relevant investment capabilities to deliver exceptional investment performance for our clients. Today, across the First Sentier Investors Group, we manage US$151.5 billion* in assets across global and regional equities, cash and fixed income, infrastructure and property, and alternative credit. 

We are home to investment teams and brands such as AlbaCore Capital Group, FSSA Investment Managers, Igneo Infrastructure Partners, Realindex Investments, and Stewart Investors. All investment teams operate with discrete investment autonomy, according to their investment philosophies and based on responsible investment principles.  

Our organization was acquired by Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc in August 2019. We operate as a standalone global investment management business with offices across Europe, the Americas, and Asia Pacific.   

We are a globally Certified B Corporation and signatory to the UK Stewardship Code.  

*N.B. First Sentier Investors' gross AUM, inclusive of associated strategic partnership with AlbaCore Capital Group, as of June 30, 2024.

For more information, visit www.firstsentierinvestors.com 

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