Kempen Capital Management is an asset manager that believes in stewardship and investment focusing on the long-term for the benefit of all stakeholders. Value creation is at the heart of the services we provide to our clients. We believe that being an engaged shareholder on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and retaining a long-term focus, is critical to helping our clients to preserve and create sustainable wealth that has positive real world impact and economic returns.Â

Kempen wide approach to responsible investment

We are committed to create sustainable alpha. The four pillars of our ESG-policy are:

• ESG integration: Ensuring sustainability risks and opportunities are adequately considered in our investment analysis and processes.

• Exclusion & avoidance: Not investing in companies involved in controversial activities or conduct.

• Active ownership: Being responsible stewards of our clients’ capital and using our influence through engagement and voting to improve corporate behaviour on specific ESG issues and achieve positive change

• Positive impact: Investing with an objective to achieve positive real world outcomes and impact, such as contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

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To put our mission and vision into practice we engage with our investee companies on a wide array of strategic, financial, and ESG topics. As an active owner we use our influence to improve our investee companies’ ESG performance.  This helps us address some of the most pressing and important sustainability issues facing business and the world. Our focus themes for engagement are: human rights, labour rights, climate change and governance.

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Through collaboration with other investors and industry think tanks we contribute to the development of principles and standards of corporate responsibility both at sector levels, as well as investee company level.Â

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Our full voting records are available here.

Climate change

As a long-term investor, we believe climate change represents a systemic risk facing the economy, society and environment, and we want to consider the risks and opportunities this presents to our investments in the coming decades. We have therefore set a long-term commitment (2050) and a mid-term ambition (2030).

•     2050 commitment: Net-zero investor
•     2030 ambition: To align with a Paris Agreement pathway (listed and non-listed investments) and the Dutch Klimaatakkoord.

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The Kempen climate change policy can be found here (under climate change policy).

OUR FUND APPROACH TO RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT

Kempen’s ESG policy is fully implemented in our fund’s investment process with the key pillar being our approaches to: Exclusion, ESG integration and Active ownership. Within this, it is important to note that the Alternative Strategies (ALTS) team invests in hedge funds and thereforedoesn’t directly invest in individual companies.

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1. Exclusion

ALTS screens underlying manager’s portfolios for exposure to Kempen’s exclusion list and actively engages with managers in case there is overlap.

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In addition to regular discussions on ESG, the team has had targeted and extensive ESG discussions with various managers, amongst others making use of MSCI ESG and Sustainalytics data. An example for this is a discussion the team had with a systematic merger arbitrage manager, which had a position in Orbital ATK once the company became the target of an acquisition by Northrop Grumman. Orbital ATK featured on Kempen’s exclusion list as involvement in the production of controversial weapons and components of such weapons, couldn’t be ruled out. The fund involved is a rules-based risk arbitrage strategy, meaning the team would have to go against their mandate to exclude this investment. The position in Orbital ATK was one of the considerations for ALTS to temporarily redeem the investment in this fund. ALTS also engaged with a second merger arbitrage fund that was invested in the Orbital ATK deal. This manager decided to exit the position after discussions with KCM and other investors, although the manager’s decision to divest this investment might be unrelated to ALTS’ engagement.

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2. ESG integration

During a thorough due diligence process, the team evaluates and discusses potential responsible investment issues with hedge fund managers. Every manager is evaluated and scored based on a set of six pillars; 1) Commitment to Responsible Investing, 2) ESG integration, 3) Active Ownership, 4) Evidence & Transparency, 5) Exclusion and 6) Impact. This score is then used as input for ALTS’ Portfolio Construction Framework which means that ESG has a direct impact on the size of a particular investment. ESG is also an important aspect of the continuous monitoring of managers as potential ESG issues are always raised in ALTS’ Investment Committee. To come to an ESG score, ALTS tests the current state of responsible investment development and awareness within the organization by means of an annual questionnaire, composed by the PRI association and specifically targeted at the hedge fund industry. The questionnaire consists of questions, focused on Policy, Governance, Investment Process, and Monitoring & Reporting. The responses have been used during the conversations throughout the year helping to shape the ESG-related discussions. Repetition is a tool to show ESG is an important topic for Kempen that will be brought up as long as there is room for improvement.Â

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3. Active ownership Â

Fund managers are encouraged to sign the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI) and Kempen offers assistance to those willing to explore the option. In addition, Kempen gives credit to managers that have established a responsible investment policy and engages in an active dialogue with managers to better understand their considerations. Moreover, the team aims to establish long-term partnerships with the managers they invest in and the majority of the funds also act as long-term engaged shareholders causing turnover to be very low at both levels. Finally, robust governance is emphasized in the Due Diligence process in cooperation with an independent Operational Due Diligence consultant (Aksia).Â

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Throughout the years, ALTS has seen an increased amount of attention towards ESG from the various hedge fund managers, with an increasing number of managers becoming a UN PRI signatory and/or establishing a responsible investment policy. Out of the 20 managers ALTS currently invests in, a total of 13 have established a responsible investment policy. This is a great improvement from a few years ago as in 2017 only 2 of them had a responsible investment policy. As engaged investors, the ALTS team has had many conversations with hedge fund managers looking to become UN PRI signatory or to establish a responsible investment policy. This is something managers appreciate and this is evidenced by multiple managers reaching out to ALTS to ask for feedback on their current ESG procedures and/or potential future improvements. Â

For more information about the mid and long term risks associated with the investments:

• Prospectus

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