Nordea Asset Management (NAM) has launched the Nordea 1 – Global Gender Diversity Fund.
The fund is managed by Julie Bech, portfolio manager and Audhild Asheim Aabø. It aims to capitalise on research revealing higher equity market returns being achieved by companies at the forefront of gender diversity.
The fifth UN Sustainable Development Goal’s (SDG) aim to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” shows it to be a key issue.
Still, there remains a major gender diversity gap across the corporate world, as less than 4 percent of the largest 500 companies on the planet have a woman CEO and just 7 percent of boards are gender diverse.
Investors are beginning to note the effects of gender diversity on corporate performance, with improved gender diversity being linked to broadened perspectives and improved decision making the firm found.
The fund has a universe of approximately 1,700 companies displaying fair gender diversity representation, where women hold at least a third of senior management roles.
This universe is then screened for liquidity and other qualitative assessments such as valuation, growth, quality and earnings. Environmental, social and Governance (ESG) criteria, such as the exclusion of companies involved in breaches of international law and norms on environmental protection, human rights and labour standards are also incorporated.
Of the remaining pool of about 350 stocks, the portfolio managers undertake a qualitative assessment and a gender diversity score is assigned. This score is based on gender diversity and equality reporting, percentage of females in top management, promotion and career development opportunities, as well as gender policies such as equal opportunities and the gender pay gap. From this, the portfolio managers assemble a portfolio of 80 to 100 valued stocks at the forefront of gender diversity.
Ms Bech said: “We are focused on identifying global companies displaying fair gender representation in senior management, executive management and at board level. We believe gender diversity drives a company’s profitability, thus companies promoting it should be rewarded. While this is a social issue, it is also correlated with business success.”
NAM is a Nordic financial services group operating in Northern Europe and based in Helsinki, Finland.
