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ESG in the Nordics: Going green during market turmoil

With increased focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in media, sell-side and investor community in the last decade, you might think it’s a relatively new invention in fundamental analysis. Well, it’s not.

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Tarjei Lode

Tarjei Lode has been an analyst on our Nordic Equities team since 2019.

Tarjei started his professional career in 2014 as an equity research analyst in the ITP Program in Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) covering Banks, Insurance and Diversified Financials. As part of the ITP Program he then moved on to Morgan Stanley where he continued working as an equity analyst covering Capital Goods

Mr. Lode holds a M.Sc. in Finance from the University of Warwick – Warwick Business School. He has also passed CFA Level 3.

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One of the pioneers on investing, Philip Fisher, introduced several questions tightly linked to ESG in his book Common stocks and uncommon profits back in 1957.

Fisher’s focus was primarily on the G (Governance), among other things the relation between a company and its workers, the integrity of management and the transparency of the company towards external players such as the investor community.

MSCI published a study in 2017 in which it found a positive relationship between ESG implementation in a company and it’s stock price performance, while also being a long-term investment factor with positive outperformance lasting for several years compared to a typical short-term investment factor. This is further supported by BAML ESG Primer from end of 2019 in which US companies with a high ESG rating outperformed companies with a low ESG rating by more than 3% every year for the past 5 years.

Morningstar recently crowned the Nordic countries as ESG leaders.

Tarjei Lode

Morningstar’s recently updated Sustainability Atlas ranked Finland and Sweden as number two and three respectively in the world, and crowned the Nordic countries as ESG leaders.

We believe a consistent focus on ESG among Nordic countries and a highly competent internal ESG-team are contributing to DNB Nordic Equities being at the forefront of the sustainable shift in the world. DNB Nordic Equities has achieved a cumulative return of 26% since inception of current management and a 5% relative return year to date (end of May 2020).

In order for the reader to get a better grip of how the Nordic team uses ESG, we have looked into how a group of companies identified as ESG leaders have performed during the recent market turmoil (the period used is 19.02.20 to end of trading 29.05.20). Both our Nordic funds have performed relatively well under the market stress only beat by the Danish stock market which is helped by a high share of healthcare companies (Exhibit 1). Healthcare has been the only positive performing sector based on a benchmark sector perspective, but IT, utilities, materials and consumer staples have also fared relatively well (Exhibit 2).

Bar graph showing the performance of the DNB Nordic strategy funds relative to the Nordic markets during the recent market turmoil.
DNB Grønt Norden and DNB Norden outperforms the Nordic markets, except for Denmark, during the recent market turmoil.

The individual stock price performance during the market turmoil ranges from positive 18% to negative 35%. The majority of companies identified as ESG leaders in DNB Grønt Norden have performed better than the benchmark during the period in question. The strongest ESG performers in our portfolio were Chr. Hansen, Svenska Cellulosa and Bonheur. The aggregate performance of the companies in Exhibit 3 (as shown in Exhibit 4) generated a return of negative 1.4% on an equal weighted basis and negative 9% on a market value weighted basis. The equal weighted basket beat index by 8% while the market weighted basket beat index by 0.6%. The results do support BAML’s notion of lower future stock price volatility for companies ranking highest on ESG. DNB Nordic Team is continuously looking for the next ESG blockbuster and we believe it is the right thing to do for both our plant and our client’s returns.

Bar graph showing the performance of the individual companies in the Nordic green universe over the recent crisis.
The individual company performances in the Nordic green universe during the time of crisis. (19.02.20 - 29.05.20)
Exhibit 4: Both the equal and market cap weighted Nordic green baskets outperforms the Nordics, Europe, and the World.

Be sure to check out DNB Asset Managements annual sustainability report here.


Sources
Books/papers:
Bank of America Merill Lynch ESG primer (2019)
Common stocks and uncommon profits (Philip Fisher, 1957)

Data:
Bloomberg
DNB Asset Management

Websites:
https://www.msci.com/www/blog-posts/has-esg-affected-stock/0794561659
https://www.morningstar.no/no/news/202758/nytt-verdenskart-viser-at-de-nordiske-landene-er-best-innen-b%C3%A6rekraft.aspx

Nordic Team: Øyvind Fjell, Hans-Marius Lee Ludvigsen, Tarjei Lode

Disclaimer: Nothing contained on this website constitutes investment advice, or other advice, nor is anything on this website a recommendation to invest in our Funds, any security, or any other instrument. The funds mentioned may not be available in the markets you represent. The information on this blog is posted solely on the basis of sharing insight to make our readers capable of making their own investment decisions. Should you have any queries about the investment funds or markets referred to on this website, you should contact your financial adviser.

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