Exclusion as a last resort

We believe that companies which understand and incorporate sustainability in their business strategy will outperform their peers over the longer term.

Our exclusion criteria apply across all asset classes. It is of fundamental importance that companies we invest in follow international laws, norms and conventions. SKAGEN will not invest in:

Norm-based exclusions:

Conduct-based norm-breaches:

• Companies that contribute to serious and systematic breaches of international law and human rights
• Companies involved in serious environmental degradation, including the climate
• Companies involved in systematic corruption and financial crime

Non-conduct-based-norm-breaches

Companies that produce or sell controversial weapons, including nuclear, land mines, cluster munitions, biological and chemical weapons

Companies will be excluded if the breaches are considered serious and the risk of recurrence is assessed as high.

We also exclude investments in companies within certain single product categories or industries that are unsustainable. These products or industries are associated with significant risks and liabilities from a societal, environmental or health-related perspective. In these product categories there is also limited scope to influence companies to operate in a more sustainable way.

These product-based exclusions include:

• Companies with more than 5% of revenue from tobacco
• Companies with more than 5% of revenue from recreational cannabis
• Companies with more than 5% of revenue from gambling
• Companies with more than 5% of revenue from adult entertainment
• Companies with more than 5% of revenue from coal related activities as well as companies mining more than 20 million tonnes of coal annually or that have over 10,000MW coal power capacity
• Companies with more than 5% of their revenue from production and/or distribution of oil sands
• Owners of palm oil plantations with unsustainable business practices
• Companies that actively lobby against the goals of the Paris Agreement

Exclusion is to be used as a last resort and should only be applied where companies clearly fail to demonstrate change or improvements. If an excluded company demonstrates positive change that reduces the risk of recurrence, the company may be re-included in the list of companies we invest in.

For sovereign bond funds, we exclude:

Sovereign bonds issued by countries that are systematically corrupt, severely neglect basic social and political rights, or that are subject to UN Security Council sanctions.

You can find the companies excluded because of the above-mentioned criteria here.