Governance

Cambridge Associates and German fund giant Deka sign up to UN PRI

PRI also announces results of 2012 Advisory Council election

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The United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has another two high-profile investment signatories – US-based consulting firm Cambridge Associates and Germany-based fund manager Deka Investment.
It comes as the PRI announced that Eric Wetlaufer, Senior Vice President of Public Market Investments at the C$165.8bn (€130.7bn) Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has been elected to its 16-member Advisory Council.
The vote saw Daniel Simard, General Co-ordinator of Canadian pension firm Bâtirente, re-elected to the position reserved for North America. David Atkin, CEO at Australia’s Construction & Building Industry Super (CBUS) retained the Oceania position.
The latest new signatories, which follow the likes of UK banking giant Lloyds Banking Group who have signed up recently, take the number of signatories to 1,123.
Cambridge, which was founded in 1973, provides investment advice and research to more than 900 institutional investors and private clients worldwide, including 90 faith-based institutions. It has over 1,000 employees in seven offices worldwide.Earlier this month the firm said it was working on behalf of clients to deepen the pool of hedge funds with socially responsible investing (SRI) screens.
It reckons a lot of non-profit and religious institutions have been missing out on hedge funds – and that hedge funds have been missing out on potential investors.
Under the plan, Cambridge works with hedge funds to create a separate share class that excludes securities that are screened based on SRI guidelines.
“Cambridge can now actively recommend to clients a diversified array of hedge funds implementing SRI screens,” it says.
Meanwhile, Frankfurt-based Deka has become the 15th asset manager in Germany to sign up to the PRI.
Deka is the asset manager for the German savings banks (Sparkassen) that own it. Its assets under management total €168.2bn, €50.5bn of which are institutional mandates.
It means that three of Germany’s four biggest asset managers have embraced the PRI. The two others are DB Advisors, the institutional fund arm of Deutsche Bank and Union Investment, the asset manager for German co-operative banks. With reporting by Jan Wagner