At Blackwall Capital, one of our primary aims is for the investments to ultimately benefit the planet and our society. ESG considerations are an integral part of our investment approach given our ‘value investing’ philosophy has always encompassed criteria such as business sustainability and good corporate governance. As a company, Blackwall has also established policies and procedures in relation to remuneration which, in Blackwall’s opinion, are proportionate and consistent with sound and effective risk management, including the management of sustainability risk, and in accordance with applicable requirements.

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More recently, we reinforced our research approach in this area to now include a wide range of environmental and social aspects. Blackwall considers sustainability factors such as environmental, social and employee matters, respect for human rights, anti-corruption and anti-bribery matters.

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Against this background we have developed a proprietary ESG research ‘scoring methodology’ that enables us to compare the ESG footprint of specific companies across sectors and regions. This methodology is based on three pillars; firstly, our checklist of 125 ESG related key performance indicators (KPIs); secondly, our overall qualitative ESG assessment based on proprietary analysis; and thirdly, the verification of our results using the data of several qualified ESG service providers. As ESG matters are constantly evolving, we aim to steadily improve our methodology going forward.

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We place a strong emphasis on our investments’ performance in terms of corporate governance including proper corporate control mechanisms, alignment of interest of all stakeholders, transparency of management, workforce strategy and ethical standards. We also analyse an investment’s environmental footprint, taking into account its contribution to protecting the environment in areas such as de-carbonisation and conservation of natural resources. In terms of the social component of ESG we focus on responsible business practices related to procurement and supply chain management, compliance, as well as workforce conditions and the respect of human rights.

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The Blackwall Europe Equity Fund is committed to buying only shares of companies that score above the 5 threshold on our 0-10 scoring scale. For the Fund’s overall ESG profile, we aggregate all individual investments’ ESG scores and weigh them in accordance with the Fund`s holdings, thereby deriving an easy-to-reconcile total ESG score. We publish that score on our monthly factsheet to allow investors to keep track of our promises.

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Within our overall ESG research efforts, we concentrate on finding companies that have successfully applied ESG criteria to their way of doing business. Our desire is to support the financing of companies that can succeed in business while at the same time doing good for society as a whole.

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To summarise, we have put in place a consistent, high-quality approach to incorporating the facets of ESG principles into our investment process. We seek, in a responsible way, superior investment results for our clients whilst rewarding corporate contribution to society and the environment beyond pure shareholder value. In our opinion, sustainability is essential in securing the long-term viability of businesses and hence also in successful and responsible investing.