SUSTAINABILITY & ESG

In 2011, a Swiss-based pension fund seeded the investment grade IP All Seasons Bond Fund. Then CIO of the pension, Mr. Grégoire Haenni, has always been a proponent of responsible investing, and under his guidance, Income Partners embarked on a sustainable investing journey, continually evolving our ways over the past decade or so. After joining a Geneva state pension fund in 2014, Mr. Haenni also became a board member of the IP All Seasons Bond Fund, becoming our firm’s de-facto adviser in ESG.

In 2019, we started to formalize our policies on ESG by integrating it into our investment process. In 2021, we further enhanced our commitment by becoming a signatory of the Principles of Responsible Investment (“PRI”) and also became a member of the Asia Investors Group on Climate Change (“AIGCC”). We also established an ESG Committee to oversee our ESG policies and procedures and have started developing our internal ESG rating system, in which our issuer engagement is key.

Today, we embrace ESG in not only our investment processes, but also in our commitment to engage issuers we invest in. We believe we can drive positive change in sustainability through continual dialogue with issuers, which allows us to gain a deeper perspective on the company that would otherwise be lacking without a broader ESG angle.

More importantly, our research has shown that performance and sustainability are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, we are believers in the long-term value of being able to identify companies with improving ESG characteristics, which will be better equipped to attract capital. We believe that a company’s commitment to sustainability (including good corporate governance) will allow it to better avoid defaults, and outperform its peers in the long run.

Finally, as a signatory of the PRI, we have agreed to the following Principles:

Principle 1:
We will incorporate ESG issues into investment analysis and decision-making processes.
Principle 2:
We will be active owners and incorporate ESG issues into our ownership policies and practices.
Principle 3:
We will seek appropriate disclosure on ESG issues by the entities in which we invest.
Principle 4:
We will promote acceptance and implementation of the Principles within the investment industry.
Principle 5:
We will work together to enhance our effectiveness in implementing the Principles.
Principle 6:
We will each report on our activities and progress towards implementing the Principles.