"SRI, not a brake on the market performance"
lefigaro.fr / jdf.com: carbon tax rejected, disagreements at the Copenhagen summit. These events would not they have a negative impact on Socially Responsible Investment (SRI)?
Alain Zeitouni: I think, however, that these cons-time advocate of SRI. They illustrate the inability of states to agree on what policy to adopt and highlight companies that have a real socially responsible approach. Investing in SRI is an investment in a well-run company with good governance and employability positive and more likely to see its share price appreciate.
AFG (French Association of Financial Management) will also require management companies by July 31, a code of ethics which they must answer a series of questions about their SRI policy.Management companies will therefore have an obligation to be transparent with investors in our case, we will put this code available to our customers on our website.
Why did you choose the multi *? How do you reconcile with SRI?
As a society, we believe it is more appropriate to rely on several topics related to SRI, rather than a team with SRI extra-financial analysis.It is well known that our SRI funds Alphastar Barclays profit pricing that allows investors to actively contribute to social awareness, with 20% management fee will be donated to support local civic projects through our structure Barclays Solidarity.
SRI funds are they more efficient than conventional investments?
It is difficult to measure but what is certain is that SRI is more resistant in the phases of market correction and presents a more defensive profile, if uptrend. In other words, there is an outperformance in the market phases. SRI is not a barrier to the market performance. Instead, he must give value added to the fund compared to a traditional investment.The management team should also bring in funds through the performance of traditional criteria such as the revaluation of securities and its prospects.
How do you select your values?
Our management approach is based on a "best in class", that is to say that we select the best titles in their class, whatever the category. In other words, we do not exclude sectors that initially do not appear to be consistent with the ISR, such as the automotive and oil industries, for example.
While values have a real socially responsible approach, we keep them. For example, some car values are investing heavily in R & D to reduce pollution from their vehicles or oil stocks investing in renewable energy. The purpose of a product is primarily SRI performance.We believe it is unnecessary to have a debate about whether a particular value or not SRI.
Why is it your portfolio as concentrated (Barclays Alphastar SRI consists of 13 funds, Ed)?
Our portfolio consists of only 13 funds, because we were not convinced of the other approaches SRI funds, and we believe this issue to make it more readable, it is not necessary to invest in more funds . Accordingly, we are heavily invested on each line, because we have strong convictions on certain themes (sustainable development, corporate governance) that we identify as a source of added value.
Amund and Natixis are historical actors of SRI investing in this topic for many years. They have a database of the oldest of the place.We also returned UFG shares Sarasin Euro Mid-Caps, while our investment universe is large caps. The idea is to identify mid-cap stocks that are concerned with the theme of SRI, but that hardly communicate, because they do not face the same pressure as the major media values.
What is the performance of your fund?
Our fund outperformed the MSCI Europe since its creation of 1.5 basis points (-19.18% against 20.73%) and the underperformed since the beginning of the year (2.98% against 3 57%). This reflects the fact that our portfolio is too concentrated on European values. Because of the difficulties of Greece, the euro has sharply d?sappr?ci? and our portfolio with him. Thus, more than one reason for the market for a reason related to the SRI we underestimate performons index.We therefore decided to refocus on Europe in integrating the England and Switzerland in our portfolio.
That is why we returned OFI leader who is a fund invested in European companies considered in a leadership role within their industry and their competitive universe. We also selected HS Europe, which is invested in European companies also meeting the constraints on environmental, social ethics and governance. We believe that given the pressures on the euro, the single currency will continue to depreciate.
* Multi-management is a technique that selects the most experienced managers and more effective and provide access to larger customer base through a single medium (CPF unit trust or life insurance contract).
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