Sustainable Development, an integral part of the investment management culture

In accordance with the key principles of the Groupama Group (Responsibility, Proximity, Solidarity), Groupama Asset Management holds its CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) policy at the heart of its economic model. Its strategy includes Socially Responsible Investment as one of the key focus areas of this policy.

A progressive approach

Groupama Asset Management firmly believes that the best practices of Sustainable Development and the social, environmental and governance criteria as applied to asset management are consistent with the objective of long-term financial and economic performance and the lasting quality of investments. SRI represents a socially progressive approach.

A pioneering initiative

Groupama Asset Management very early made SRI a key focus area in terms of its positioning. Since the early 2000s, the asset management company has integrated the criteria for sustainable development into its financial management tools. It is around this long-term vision that the SRI strategy of Groupama Asset Management has been built, so as to bring the optimum benefit to its entire range of management services by taking into account these new criteria. The principal objectives of this SRI strategy are: better identification and control of risks, optimisation of the management of opportunities for economic and financial value creation and assumption of its corporate and fiduciary responsibilities.

An SRI strategy with complementary approaches

Groupama Asset Management’s SRI strategy is embodied in a threefold approach. It is formed of three distinctly different, yet complementary, approaches:

- A “broad” SRI approach, which comprises the following principal characteristics:

• Integration of the key ESG criteria for each sector into the fundamental financial analysis
• Ongoing use of the ESG rating tool by our asset managers
• Measurement of the SRI quality of the portfolios
• Determination of SRI quality objectives for the portfolios

- A “core” SRI approach, which comprises the following principal characteristics:

• Use of the specific ESG rating methodology in order to establish a scoring system and to prioritise issuers in each business sector
• Qualitative analysis to complement the quantitative approach
• The selection of eligible universes
• Compulsory adherence to the AFG/FIR Code of Transparency
• The option of the Novethic SRI label

- A specific approach for money management, which comprises the following principal characteristics:

• The determination of a list of defined issuers
• The exclusion of any complex securitisation transactions and any securities issued from tax havens
• The integration of certain specific criteria, which favour public interest financial companies

A dynamic and progressive approach

Since its very beginning, Groupama Asset Management has opted to integrate specialist SRI analyst positions into its Financial and Extra-Financial Analysis department (AFEF). They enrich the fundamental and credit analyses by providing input to them, working in teams of two with the financial analysts.
Through these analyses, Groupama Asset Management, in its recommendations and its choices with regard to asset management, integrates the three ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) key criteria for Sustainable Development.

A specific methodology for ESG analysis

Groupama Asset Management’s financial and extra-financial analysts have developed a methodology for ESG analysis that, as a result of its close relationship with financial engineering, integrates our internal research with external data from ratings agencies. This range of internal tools (research, sector-based analysis tables, etc.) and external tools (sector-based research and analyses from brokers, research from databases, etc.) thus enables SRI analysts to:

• evaluate the degree of integration of the CSR policy into businesses’ economic models;
• measure the SRI quality of debt issuers and capital issuers in terms of ventures and opportunities;
• define the eligible investment universes