Boutique Australian equities manager Hyperion has formalised its commitment to environmental, social or governance (ESG) issues by becoming a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI).
"The team decided to become signatories as a way to build an investment industry that put PRI issues on the same page as financial return because, to our way of thinking, they are completely aligned," Hyperion managing director Manny Pohl said.
According to Hyperion institutional business director Tim Samway, the equities manager first discussed signing the UN PRI a few years ago and revisited it after recent discussions with institutional investors.
"We've been asked by clients as part of an overall review of their managers as to whether we were going to sign the UN PRI. Our consultant Frontier was also interested in what we were doing in regard to ESG," Samway said.
Samway said that businesses would not be able to sustain a competitive advantage if they didn't address these issues.
"While ESG best practices are not new concepts for Hyperion, they are now features that actually matter to investors," Samway said.
Hyperion has no plans to introduce any new products or add staff as a result of becoming a UN PRI signatory.
"Our plans are that we are a well-performing manager and we've got capacity to manage more money and we would like to talk to super funds about fulfilling that capacity," Samway said.
The boutique manager joins a long list of local investment managers including Aberdeen Asset Management, Queensland Investment Corporation and AMP Capital Investors that have signed the UN PRI.
