"Combining financial return with a social dimension" Joël Reuland, BL-Equities Horizon fund manager

Is Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) a passing fad or a market with a future?

With a market valued at 2,500 billion euros, far from being a passing fad, the trend is proving its reliability as a process in terms of analysis and asset management, and the prejudices about SRI funds performing less well than traditional funds are falling away. The "responsible" aspect is even being increasingly viewed as a long-term value creator. A company that neglects its responsibility towards any of its stakeholders is exposing itself to a backlash. A responsible company will reduce its risks, even acting ahead of legislation, and we can expect this to have a positive impact on its share price in the future.

Why is SRI logical for foundations?

Investing is not a painless process: it means financing a company and supporting its decisions, its development etc. SRI means opting for an approach that backs companies which promote a more balanced world, socially or environmentally. Foundations are inherently concerned to reduce imbalances so it is therefore logical that they would want to invest in responsible companies.

What is the basis of your SRI offer?

SRI is reaching a stage of maturity. Having for a long time been limited to excluding certain sectors, it has now established more empirical and standardised techniques, based on an environmental, social and corporate governance analysis of companies. In 2008, having carefully watched the development of SRI methodologies, we considered that we had sufficient objective appreciation to offer our clients an initial investment vehicle in this area: the BL-Equities Horizon fund.

How does this "Horizon" fund operate?

We have the Forum Ethibel label. Based on analysis by the rating agency Vigeo, Forum Ethibel has established a socially responsible investment universe, composed of companies with the best social and environmental practices - the Best in Class. These are companies with the best practices towards all their stakeholders, not just towards one stakeholder more than another. We then apply our stock-picking process to this universe, favouring companies with the most attractive valuations, which produces an international equity investment fund combining financial strength and ethical sustainability. Choosing BL-Equities Horizon means opting for a long-term investment perspective and combining financial return with social concerns.

Apart from BL-Equities Horizon, what else does Banque de Luxembourg offer?

We have a team of specialist analysts for SRI issues and microfinance. They analyse all the existing funds and make investment recommendations to reflect our clients’ requirements.

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