THIERRY GUERILLOT
HEAD OF FUND SELECTION
MYRIA ASSET MANAGEMENT
Score prediction: FRANCE 2 – SWITZERLAND 0
INVESTMENT INSIGHT:
The French team of football has been considered favourite by the bookmakers to win the actual tournament.
So far, so good.
But France can be proud of its numerous champions in secondary disciplines such as :
-The spitting of periwinkle (10.21m)
-Breaking nuts with buttocks (58 in 1 min)
-The opening of oysters within an hour (848 with hands behind his back?!)
-The imitation of the cry of a pig
-The imitation of the cry of a seagull
-The throwing of flip-flops (39.56m)
-The spitting of melon seeds (13m)
-The garlic peeling (31.15kg in 30 min)
-The roller bed racing (345m in less than 1min16)
-The throwing of pancakes in height (9.6m)
MICHELE DE MICHELIS (and team)
CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER
FRAME ASSET MANAGEMENT
Score prediction: FRANCE 0 – SWITZERLAND 0 (Switzerland on penalties)
INVESTMENT INSIGHT:
ESG investments are growing and a lot of asset managers are closely watching for countries, companies and funds that are ESG compliant. Switzerland is among the countries that supply a high range of offers related to ESG practices.
Recently, the Swiss Parliament approved a new law that increase the ESG reporting duties for companies of public interest (many of them are listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange). The introduction of this new law (expected by 2022) will force these companies to issue a report about their activities and the impact of them. The Swiss Government is particularry focused on companies that import minerals from conflict regions or that might be involved with child abuse workforce.
The strong efforts of the government to be more compliant with ESG rules has been rewarded. Switzerland is one of the top ranked countries worldwide for sustainability: from the last ESG country report issued by Candriam emerged that Switzerland is the top performer of the entire list.
The attention to ESG practices is widely visible also into the Swiss financial world.
For 2020, the volume of the sustainable investments in the country stand at CHF1.52trn Francs (31% more than previous year) and for the first time ever the volume of sustainable funds were representing the 52% share of the entire Swiss funds market.
Another important thing is that Swiss investors are growing their attention for the impact investments that is increasing the dialogue between investors and companies management in order to enhance the management’s attentions on companies impact.
