Edinburgh Investment Trust | ESG

Edinburgh Investment Trust (EIT) is managed by  the Global Fundamental team (GFT) at Liontrust Asset Management. As described in the annual report, the Board of EIT supports the approach that the GFT takes to ESG factors in its management of EIT’s portfolio.

ESG factors are potentially material to the companies in which EIT invests. It is critical to determine the materiality of these for each individual holding. In so doing, an accurate assessment may be made for both investment decisions and the focus of engagement with companies held in the portfolio. As well as potential ESG opportunities, the GFT considers the downside risk to any company – whether in the form of its business prospects or market valuation or sustainability of dividends – that is perceived to be making a detrimental contribution to issues such as climate change. Further information about how ESG issues are managed in the portfolio can be found via the website below.

ESG Factors In the Investment Process | Edinburgh Investment Trust (edinburgh-investment-trust.co.uk)

The GFT also reviews its overall approach to ESG in a detailed annual report. 

Edinburgh Investment Trust Half Yearly Report 2023 (2).pdf

Liontrust supports a wide variety of industry initiatives.

https://www.unpri.org/

https://www.netzeroassetmanagers.org/

https://www.frc.org.uk/investors/uk-stewardship-code

https://www.fsb-tcfd.org/

https://sciencebasedtargets.org/

https://www.lseg.com/en/ftse-russell/indices/ftse4good

https://www.ccla.co.uk/documents/ccla-2023-corporate-mental-health-benc…

Liontrust exercises EIT’s voting rights and reports these decisions to the Board quarterly. Liontrust believes that the voting of proxies should be undertaken by the same team that manages the assets. Upcoming votes are often a reason for communicating with an investee company. Indeed, many of the engagements with portfolio holdings relate to voting decisions. Liontrust’s Proxy Voting Policy can be accessed here.

https://www.liontrust.co.uk/-/media/liontrust/files/investor-relations/corporate-governance/governance-policies/governance-proxy-voting-policy---liontrust-investment-partners-llp.pdf

Overall, the GFT aims for its companies to be as strong as possible across the spectrum of their operations. They talk with companies about the issues that matter most to each investment – the areas that will have the greatest long-term impact on the company’s ability to perform. The aim is for all companies in the portfolio to be better tomorrow than they are today, in as many ways as possible.

For further information, please contact Liontrust at [email protected] or call on 020 7412 1700.