Liontrust Responsible Capitalism Report 2024 - Flipbook - Page 104
COMMITMENT TO NET ZERO
The Global Innovation team’s funds that are committed to net zero
are listed in the table below. Note that the fund WACI numbers
for end 2023 are computed with the actual AuM of the fund in
USD as at the end of December 2023. This methodology differs
from the fund WACI numbers to the end of 2022 when the total
AuM of each fund was assumed to be $1 billion. The change to
actual AuM figures comes as Liontrust now has the ability to include
this in the computation. Going forward, Liontrust plans to continue
using actual AuM when computing WACI numbers so that more
accurate, year-on-year WACI comparisons can be made.
Funds
Benchmark used
for MSCI ESG
analysis
Benchmark
WACI end 2019
Fund WACI end
2022
Fund WACI end
2023
End 2023 fund
WACI lower than
2019 benchmark
WACI by
Liontrust Global Innovation Fund
MSCI AC World
185.9
48.5
21.7
88%
Liontrust Global Dividend Fund
MSCI World
168.2
32.5
35.2
79%
Liontrust Global Technology Fund
MSCI World**
125.0
68.4
24.9
80%
** The Liontrust Global Technology Fund was benchmarked at the end of December 2022 against the fund’s performance benchmark,
MSCI World Information Technology index. However, continuing the use of this benchmark for comparing the fund’s WACI is problematic,
as this index is highly concentrated with just three companies making up over 50% of the benchmark. Therefore, the team will benchmark
the Fund against the MSCI World index which is comparatively less concentrated.
ENGAGEMENT PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
The team engages with its holdings to:
• Primarily, understand their innovation, barriers to competition,
management quality and returns on invested capital
Engagement on climate change
During the year, the team engaged its holdings on climate changerelated issues, including:
• Understand other relevant aspects of the business and risks
Company
What the
group does
Date
Discussion
topic(s)
Discussion summary
Impact on investment
decision (if any)
Applied
Materials
Semiconductor
equipment
30/11/23
Energy
savings
through
innovative
new products
New platform Vistara achieves 35% energy savings over
previous platform. New EcoTwin software enables customers to
optimize sustainability of semiconductors designs
None
Engagement on other ESG related topics
The team also engaged holdings on other ESG related topics, including:
Company
What the
group does
Date
Discussion
topic(s)
Discussion summary
Twilio
Enterprise
23-24/2/23 Stock based
Company has awarded high SBC to management relative to
communications
compensation peers, which we continue to monitor and challenge
24/5/23
software
(SBC)
ADHERENCE TO LIONTRUST’S CONTROVERSIAL
WEAPONS POLICY
• The Global Innovation team adheres to this policy, which
excludes investment in companies with involvement in cluster
munitions, anti-personnel land mines, biological weapons and/
or chemical weapons.
104 - Responsible Capitalism Report 2023
Impact on investment
decision (if any)
None
• Liontrust’s controversial weapons policy can be found from the
following web page: https://www.liontrust.co.uk/about-us/
corporate-sustainability/a-responsible-investor