Fidelity named as the leading asset manager at engaging for long-term value

Fidelity Management & Research, the US investment giant with $1.7trn in assets under management, has been named as the leading fund management house in the UK at engaging for long-term value in the latest Thomson Reuters Extel/UKSIF SRI & Sustainability Survey.

Fidelity built on its 19th place in last year’s survey to come ahead of BlackRock Investment Management (2012: 2nd) and Capital Research Global Investors (2012: 7th).

The survey was organised by news and data giant Thomson Reuters Extel and the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF). It represents the views of over 500 investment professionals from 29 countries, and is closely watched in the European SRI community.

Voting took place from March 26-May 3 with contributions from 215 buy-side firms and 26 brokerage firms/research houses.

The leading brokerage for SRI & Sustainability Overall remained the renamed Kepler Cheuvreux, with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and UBS retaining their second and third slots respectively. Kepler Cheuvreux was also named leading brokerage for SRI Research, swappingplaces with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which slipped to second place this year. Société Générale was third in this category. Kepler Cheuvreux was also named Leading Brokerage Firm for Corporate Governance Research. The firm’s Rob Walker also kept his position as Leading Brokerage Individual for Corporate Governance Research.

Kepler Cheuvreux was also named the Leading Brokerage Firm for Integrated Research on Climate Change.

Sarj Nahal at Bank of America Merrill Lynch kept the no.1 ranking as Leading Brokerage Individual for SRI Research. Natixis’ Orith Azoulay and Yannick Ouaknine (Société Générale) were second and third.

The Leading Brokerage Firm for Renewable Energy Research was this year named as Macquarie Securities Group (2012: 2nd). The firm’s Robert Schramm-Fuchs was the Leading Brokerage Individual for Renewable Energy Research.

Highlights from the survey include the finding that more than 80% of the “buy-side” see thematic research as vital in SRI/ESG analysis. And nearly 75% see SRI/ESG issues as material to share prices. Extel Surveys home page