Manulife Investment Management Earns Straight "A's" From United Nations-Supported PRI

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Aug 22, 2019, 06:00 ET

PRI Assessment Coincides with the Release of Manulife's Inaugural Sustainable and Responsible Investing Report

TORONTO, Aug. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ - Manulife Investment Management announced today that it has been recognized with top scores (A+ and A) in all submitted categories from the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) annual Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) assessment report for 2018. Manulife Investment Management ranked above the median in every category of the assessment.

Manulife Investment Management received a score of A+ from the United Nations' Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) on the Strategy and Governance module for its approach to integrating ESG considerations into business investment practices across a range of asset classes.
Manulife Investment Management received an A in all other direct investment and active ownership PRI modules for which it was assessed. Modules covered its investments in Public Markets (listed equity, corporate bonds, sovereign bonds and securitized debt) and Private Markets (real estate equity, farmland and timberland) as well as its corporate ESG engagement and voting activities.

"We are proud to be recognized for leading the industry in social and environmental investing practices," said Chris Conkey, Head of Public Markets, Global Wealth and Asset Management, Manulife Investment Management. "I applaud the superior work of our research and investment teams, for putting responsible stewardship at the heart of our business, both as an asset manager and as a steward of our clients' capital."

In parallel with these rankings, Manulife Investment Management's Public Markets group released its own inaugural Sustainable and Responsible Investing Report for the business. The report provides clients and stakeholders with an overview of the philosophy and guiding principles driving the Public Markets group's approach to sustainable investing, as well as concrete steps taken across the firm to integrate sustainability considerations into investment decision-making.

The report outlines Manulife Investment Management's sustainability plan, key focus areas and metrics of success. These focus areas include strong governance from senior executives, ESG integration, active and responsible stewardship, using a dynamic approach in innovating for the future, and increased transparency about sustainable investment practices. By using this framework of core tenets, Manulife naturally integrates ESG as a complement to its strength as an active investment manager. The report further explains the firm's philosophy that ESG factors contribute to the risk-and-return profile of an investment, and advocates that strong management of ESG risks and opportunities can support consistent returns.

Key milestones achieved within Manulife's Public Markets group in 2018, which both drove the UN PRI scores and informed the inaugural report, include:

Climate change analysis and integration through financial market initiatives and collaborative engagement efforts
ESG integration across equity and fixed-income investment teams
Active and responsible stewardship through company engagement across ESG factors and themes
Innovation in risk analysis across geographically distinct equity portfolios, through the development of a proprietary sovereign risk model, and a new methodology for sustainable development goals (SDGs)-aligned investing

"ESG analysis has become integral for investors to understand the true value of an investment and it's now being looked to for its ability to help map opportunities for sustainable growth," said Emily Chew, Global Head of Environmental, Social and Governance Research and Integration at Manulife Investment Management. "With the release of our sustainable investing report, we aim to demonstrate that ESG research, analysis, and integration are not just an aspirational policy for our firm, but part of the daily practice of our investment teams around the globe."

To view Manulife Investment Management's Public Markets' 2018 Sustainable and Responsible Investing Report, click here.

About Manulife Investment Management
Manulife Investment Management is the global wealth and asset management segment of Manulife Financial Corporation. We draw on more than 150 years of financial stewardship to partner with clients across our institutional, retail, and retirement businesses globally. Our specialist approach to money management includes the highly differentiated strategies of our fixed-income, specialized equity, multi-asset solutions, and private markets teams—along with access to specialized, unaffiliated asset managers from around the world through our multimanager model. Our personalized, data-driven approach to retirement is focused on delivering financial wellness in retirement plans of all sizes to help plan participants and members retire with dignity.

Headquartered in Toronto, we operate as Manulife Investment Management throughout the world, with the exception of the United States, where the retail and retirement businesses operate as John Hancock Investment Management and John Hancock, respectively; and in Asia and Canada, where the retirement business operates as Manulife. Manulife Investment Management had C$844 billion (USD $645 billion) in assets under management and administration as of June 30, 2019¹. Not all offerings available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit our website at manulifeinvestmentmgt.com.

1.Source: MFC financials. Global Wealth and Asset Management AUMA at June 30, 2019 was C$844 billion and includes C$191 billion of assets managed on behalf of other segments and C$136 billion of assets under administration.

About the PRI and Manulife Investment Management's latest PRI assessment
Supported by, but not part of, the United Nations, the PRI is the world's leading proponent of responsible investment. It works to understand the investment implications of ESG factors and to support its international network of investor signatories in incorporating these factors into their investment and ownership decisions. The PRI acts in the long-term interests of its signatories, of the financial markets and economies in which they operate, and ultimately of the environment and society as a whole. Additional information on the PRI's assessment process is available on the PRI's website.

As a PRI signatory, Manulife Investment Management has committed to following the PRI's six responsible investing principles, which include annual disclosures and an evaluation of our implementation of responsible investing. In the PRI's latest assessment of our responsible investing approach, we received strong scores: one A+ for strategy and governance and As in all other areas for which we were assessed. These include equity, fixed income, active ownership, and property modules, representing numerous segments of our public and private market businesses. For the first time since we became a signatory in 2015, we scored higher than the median PRI signatory in all of our assessed categories. The improvement in our PRI assessment each year reflects the innovations of Manulife Investment Management's ESG team and the collaborative efforts of our ESG team and our individual investment teams around the globe. For more detail, see our Sustainable and Responsible Investing report.

SOURCE Manulife Financial Corporation