European Workshops on Disclosure of Environmental, Social and Governance Information

Transcription

1 European Workshops on Disclosure of Environmental, Social and Governance Information Workshop 2: The investor perspective Friday 30 October 2009, Meeting room: Borschette Conference Centre (Room 3A), Rue Froissart 36 Objectives By the end of this workshop we want to : - better understand trends and developments in the attitudes and practices of different investors towards ESG information; - better understand why some investors take an interest in ESG factors and some do not; - identify problems faced by investors in accessing useful ESG information from companies, and in disclosing their own ESG information; - identify possible ways of addressing those problems. Agenda Welcome and introduction: Pedro Ortún, Director, European Commission Overview of current practices and trends Aim: to give a bird s eye view and ensure basic level of understanding of all participants. Who are the main kinds of actor within the wide investor community, and how does their role affect their level of interest in ESG information? How is investor interest in ESG information evolving? Matt Christiansen, EUROSIF: trends in practices and attitudes of different actors in the investor community towards ESG information (10 minutes) Open discussion (35 mins) 1

2 The investor-company interface Aim: to illustrate and discuss current practice and problems regarding investorcompany communication on ESG issues. Specific issues to address include (but not limited to): - How do investors and companies communicate about ESG information? What channels and techniques do they use? - What are the main barriers to good communication? How can such communication be made more effective? - How and why does investor interest vary between industrial sectors (e.g. heavy industry versus services?) Short testimonies from 3 corporates and 3 investors: Representative from L Oréal (Investor Relations) (5 mins) Company Representative (Investor relations) (5 mins) Paolo Nazzaro, Telecom Italia and representative of the European Alliance Laboratory on Valuation and Communication of Non-Financial Performance (5 mins) Frank Curtiss, Railpen Investments and representative of International Corporate Governance Network (5 mins) François Chaulet, Monstegur Finance, France (5 mins) David Perez de Ciriza, Caja Navarra, Spain (initiative regarding dislcosure by SMEs) (5 minutes) Open discussion (45 mins) Coffee break 2

3 What kind of ESG information do investors want? Aim: to explore what kind of ESG information, and in what form, is most useful for investors and other main actors in the investment community. Specific issues to address include (but not limited to): - What are the key ESG issues for investors? To what extent are these common issues or are they dependent on sector, location, etc? - What information is useful for investors? Why is it useful and is it available? What do investors need in order to better incorporate ESG information in valuation models? - What is the relative importance of indicators of past performance versus future-oriented narrative? What kind of long-term strategic information is useful for investors? - What existing KPIs do investors use, if any? What is the relative importance of KPIs compared to other ESG information? What difference might an agreed set of KPIs make to investors? From an investor perspective, what would be some of those KPIs and what balance would there need to be between general and sector-specific indicators? - What is the key ESG information needed by financial analysts, rating agencies, accountants? Short testimonies from: Claudia Kruse, All Pension Group, NL (5 mins) Stéphane Voisin, Crédit Agricole Chevreux, France (5 mins) Paul Druckman, Federation of European Accountants (FEE) and Prince of Wales Accounting for Sustainability Project (5 mins) Ralf Frank, European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies (EFFAS) (5 mins) Jan Vandenhove, Vigeo CSR Rating Agency (5 mins) Open discussion (35 mins) Lunch 3

4 Investor transparency on ESG issues Why is investor transparency on ESG issues important? What are the current trends? Is there a need to improve investor transparency on ESG issues and if so, how can this be done? Opening presentation: Herman Mulder, Independent Advisor, ex-abn AMRO (10 minutes) Responses from: Lorenzo Saà, UNPRI (5 mins) Representative of European Investment Bank (5 mins) Representative of State Street (5 mins) Open discussion (40 minutes) Coffee Integrated reporting: trends and possibilities To what extent do companies disclose financial and non-financial information in an integrated manner? Is there a trend towards integration? What are the advantages and disadvantages of integration to investors? What tools exist or might need to be developed? What is the potential of XBRL (or other systems) with regard to ESG disclosure? Opening presentation: Mike Krzus, Partner, Grant Thornton LLP (15 mins) Responses from: Cécile Churet, SAM, Switzerland (5 mins) Representative from BASF (5 mins) Chiara Mio, Federation of European Accountants (FEE) (5 mins) Open discussion (30 mins) 4

5 Disclosure Nirvana : what does it look like for investors? Attempt to draw together some of main themes to have emerged from the discussions, and opportunity to address any additional issues. Selected participants each in turn answer the question If you could change one thing about the current ESG disclosure practices and frameworks, what would it be? (3 minutes each): Gianluca Manca, Eurizon Capital SGR Spa, Italy (3 mins) Hendrik Garz, West LB, Germany (3 mins) Danielle Guyat, Mercer (3 mins) Robin Edme, Vice-President, EUROSIF (3 mins) Issues to consider include (but not limited to): - How do or how could investors reward companies for better ESG disclosure and performance? Do such mechanisms already exist? How might such mechanisms vary between kinds of investor? Open discussion (25 mins) Feedback, Conclusions, Next Steps Comments and feedback from participants on process, to feed into next workshops. Draft agenda of 3 rd ESG Disclosure Workshop (civil society, consumers, media perspectives) 5