Research Papers

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Q&A's

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Q&A, Pierre Boyer

Money market strategies: when cash is king

Money market strategies aim to offer a low-risk and liquid way for investors to generate higher returns than traditional savings accounts. Pierre Boyer, Elodie Brun, and Benjamin Schoofs, portfolio managers, share their insights on the asset class.
Q&A, Christopher Mey, Nikolay Menteshashvili

Unlocking opportunities: a guide to investing in emerging market corporate debt

In a constantly-evolving global environment, emerging markets present distinctive opportunities for investors looking to diversify and enhance their returns. Emerging market corporate bonds represent a $1trln+ asset class, combining robust fundamentals with strong return potential. Nikolay Menteshashvili and Christopher Mey, portfolio managers, explain in detail why this investment strategy deserves investors attention, how it may offer attractive risk-adjusted returns, and the key requirements for successfully navigating this complex yet promising universe.
Q&A, ESG, SRI, Kroum Sourov, Christopher Mey, Emerging Markets

Sustainable: an emerging market for emerging debt

Kroum Sourov and Christopher Mey, portfolio managers of the sustainable emerging market debt strategy, describe the significance this type of analysis can have for a bond portfolio. They explain Candriam’s investment process, with our emphasis on relative value and risk management. This approach is intended to allow the strategy to adapt the ever-changing markets over the course of an economic cycle.
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SRI Publications

Engagement and Voting activities

Candriam Engagement Policy

The Investment Stewardship concept calls on investors to use all means at their disposal to create: long-term value for their clients and beneficiaries & sustainable benefits for the economy, the environment and society.


Candriam Proxy Voting Policy

As a Responsible investor, Candriam pays particular attention to the corporate governance policies, structures and practices of the companies in which it invests on behalf of its customers and the funds under management.


Predeclaration of Voting Intentions

Starting from 2022, Candriam decided to pre-announce some of its voting intentions ahead of the related general meetings when such pre-declaration may answer to stakehoders’ demand of improved transparency, serve an engagement objective or as an escalation measure.


Details of votes

Voting Dashboard since 2020


Mid-Year Voting Report 2024

The first six months of 2024 have been eventful.


2023 Annual Engagement & Voting Report

As Active Investors, Engagement and Voting are at the centre of our investing and our stewardship. We work in partnership with our investees, as we believe in issuers’ capacity to achieve sustainable performance.


2023 Annual Engagement Statistics

Since 2015, our three Conviction topics have been Energy Transition, Fair Work Conditions and Business Ethics. Our engagement framework is evergreen, but the specifics are ever-changing.


2023 Annual Voting Statistics

In 2023, we began to pre-declare our voting intentions. This provides transparency to our stakeholders and may also provide a means of escalation.


2023 Details of direct dialogues


Mid-Year Voting Report 2023

While for the most part, the 2023 proxy season unfolded as expected, we did witness a few surprises.


2022 Annual Engagement & Voting Report

At Candriam, we define engagement as interactions we have on ESG issues, not only with current or potential investees but also with entities which, through their competence and/ or authorities, are able to initiate or influence change in the regulatory or market frameworks involving ESG aspects.


2022 Details of direct dialogues


2021 Details of direct dialogues


2020 Details of direct dialogues


Key voting takeaways in 2021

Having passed the mid-year point, we are able to discern some major trends emerging from the 2021 voting season.


Lessons from the 2020 Voting Season

All around the world, there have been significant delays and cancellations of annual general meetings (AGMs) during the early stages of the pandemic, leading to audit process failures in Asian markets and other challenges. However, this did not stop some of the emerging voting trends, such as climate-related resolutions, which featured prominently at a number of important meetings.


2019 Engagement report

The year 2019 was rich and eventful, spanning a complex list of topics. This summary focuses on our three Conviction Topics, which together accounted for more than two-thirds of our total direct issuer dialogues. These same three topics, Energy Transition, Fair Working Conditions, and Business Ethics, have marked our efforts over the last five years, and will be the stepping stones to 2020 and beyond.


2018 Engagement report

Integrating ESG factors into the financial analysis of companies, engaging in constructive dialogue with them to encourage best practices and exercising the shareholder vote should be the norm for any committed investor for whom ESG is more than just three letters. At Candriam, these three actions have been a reality in our daily lives as investors for nearly 20 years.

Case Studies

2024 Case Study – Active Engagement: Costa Rica

Sovereign engagement is rare, and direct engagement even more so. Not only is access difficult to obtain, but great care must be taken to avoid even the appearance of lobbying or interfering. This case describes a successful engagement with government representatives, IMF officials, and others which improved our understanding of a material event.


2024 Case Study – Human Capital Management in European Small and Mid-sized Companies: Analysing the Data

Despite constraints on both their human and financial capital, Small- and Mid-Sized companies (SMIDs) share similar business ambitions with their larger counterparts while competing for the same talent. They need talent to fuel their growth, yet that rapid growth can strain employees. Attracting and retaining talent, while simultaneously maintaining workforce productivity, poses a challenge.


2023 Case Study – Active Engagement: Unilever

Although Unilever was already an example of ‘Best Practice’ in food industry nutrition transparency, a working group of investors believes that the entire food industry must do better. And good news! When Unilever raised the game, other major food producers quickly followed to adopt the new, stronger best practices.


2023 Case Study –Teleperformance: Engagement Update

Teleperformance had historically been embraced by the sustainable community, with a reputation for understanding the importance of employee well-being. It receives awards for employee satisfaction, and includes employee well-being as a factor in its executive remuneration.


2022 Case Study – Active Engagement: Post-Covid Engagement Takeaways

The pandemic changed the rules of the game at both individual and collective scales. It impacted the world economy from many different perspectives. Not only did it create a short-term financial strain, it also pushed several corporates to re-draft their long-term strategies.


2022 Case study - Active Engagement: Kingspan

Kingspan Group is an Ireland-based company that provides insulation and building envelope solutions. It has five operating divisions, with the production of insulation products accounting for over 80% of company’s business.


2022 Collaborative Initiative - Active Engagement: Investor Engagement on Human Rights Risks of Facial Recognition Technology

Governments, law enforcement agencies and corporates are rushing to adopt Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) with a hope of increasing security, as well as improving efficiency and customer experience. Investors are highly interested. FRT, along with other Artificial Intelligence (AI) functions, is a promising technology. Concurrently, its rapid deployment has raised major concerns about the impact on privacy, data protection and civil liberties.


2022 Case Study – Active Engagement: Small and Mid-Cap Companies: Human Capital Management

SMID companies have fewer resources than their large-capitalization peers, yet are often growing faster. We apply our experience in Engagement campaigns to the special situations of these companies, beginning with their need to recruit, train, and retain employees, while competing against larger companies for the same workers.


2021 Case Study – Active Engagement: Access to medicines, or how equality has become a central issue for pharma businesses

The health crisis has caused more than 900,000 deaths in Europe1. But it has also illustrated the health sector’s tremendous drive for innovation in its search for solutions to the pandemic. Candriam’s aim in its investments in the health sector is to identify, amongst those companies capable of discovering and producing the solutions of tomorrow, the most innovative.


2021 Case Study – Active Engagement: Financial Institutions Climate Change Survey

The impacts of Climate Change on the financial sector are already measured in the billions, just for extreme weather events. Add in other elements such as credit risks for banks, and delays in tackling climate change could cost financial companies up to $1.2 trillion over the next 15 years.


2020 Case Study – Active Engagement: Collective Efforts: the Workforce Disclosure Initiative

The Covid Crisis has put a renewed spotlight on the ‘S’ in ESG. Investors need more transparency to analyze not only the employee stakeholder, but the flexibility and preparedness of companies in crises such as Covid.


2020 Case Study – Active Engagement: Teleperformance SE

Teleperformance is a global leader in digitally integrated business services, including call centers or web platforms, with employees in 80 countries. As a service business, it is people-driven, growing to 330,000 employees and €5 billion in revenues over 40 years. Headquartered in France, its largest perations are in EMEA, India, the Philippines, the United States, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil.


2020 Case Study – Active Engagement: BHP

Amongst industries, the metals and mining sector is responsible for a large part of man-made greenhouse gas emissions in Australia and globally; not only directly, but especially through the end uses of its products after extraction and sale. BHP is one of the world’s largest mining conglomerates, and one of Australia’s largest corporations.

Sovereign Sustainability

Sovereign Sustainability: Rising Water Pressure

In this fifth edition of our Sovereign Sustainability results, we once again call on the sub-scores to examine a particular issue across the more than 120 countries we analyse. In previous editions, we have examined the interaction between climate goals and deforestation, climate goals and housing, and rule of law and US elections. With 50% of the citizens around the world going to the polls this year, we assure you that we are incorporating many of the governance elements of our model in our investment and risk analyses.

Candriam Policies

Candriam Exclusion Policy

This controversial activity policy is the concrete expression of Candriam’s sustainability leadership. It defines which activities, due to their widely recognised ethical and economic unsustainability, are to be excluded from Candriam’s investment portfolios across asset classes. Candriam recognises the important role that asset managers play in tackling major global issues, such as health and climate change, and strives to be at the forefront of sustainability by advancing its policies and practices.


Candriam Climate Strategy

Our climate is changing faster and faster, bringing our world closer to disastrous social and economic consequences every year. We are reaching the tipping point on every planetary boundary, meaning that at the current pace, we will reach a point of no return in this decade, threatening the future of both our planet and mankind.


ESG Integration Policy

In the face of the environmental and social challenges our world faces today, there is a clear need for smarter, more sustainable, and inclusive socio-economic development that strengthens the resilience of the global economy. In fact, economic growth should be sustainable over the long term, benefiting everyone across generations.


Candriam Sustainable Investment Policy

Sustainability is rooted in Candriam's operating model and forms a key part of our corporate culture. Candriam’s sustainable development strategy leads us to incorporate sustainability trends shaping the world of tomorrow within the process of defining our firm’s strategic orientations. Our philosophy is to establish and maintain a balance between responsible behaviour towards all stakeholders and the pursuit of sustainable financial performance.


Candriam Human Rights Policy

We believe that respecting and upholding Human Rights is part of our corporate responsibility, as an employer, in our operations, and as an asset manager to whom investors entrust their portfolios. We support the principles enshrined in key international conventions and standards that guide our Human Rights Policy, which applies to all Candriam staff and stakeholders, across the company’s operations and investment activities.


Candriam Climate Policy

Climate change is one of the most urgent and important challenges that society and investors are facing today.

CSR Report

Corporate Social Responsibility Report - Driving progress for people and the planet

The current global economic and geopolitical landscape remains as uncertain as ever. While the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic are fading into memory, the Russia-Ukraine war tragically continues and new conflicts have emerged in the Middle East. Even the stabilisation of leading economies and the retreat of inflation, though positive, leave many uncertainties about the next phase of global development. Additionally, the signs of destructive climate change continue to mount.


Stewardship Report

Stewardship, a term often used when speaking of Voting and Engagement, includes those functions but is really an end-to-end process of responsibility, from establishing good governance at the top, all the way to delivering and safeguarding the investments which meet our clients’ needs. This report draws on all the specialty topics we report on – our philosophy and approach, investment process Transparency Codes, Voting, Corporate Social Responsibility, and how we determine client needs.

Guide to sustainable investing

Dispelling the five common myths

Dispelling some common myths of sustainable investing. True or false: sustainable strategies underperform? Let’s put an end to overcoming misconceptions of sustainable investing!


Emerging market companies hold the key to our climate future

In 2015, the year of the COPS21 conference in Paris, the global level of CO2 emissions reached 35.21 billion tons. In December that year, the Paris Agreement was signed, setting out a global framework to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C compared to the pre-industrial levels.


European Taxonomy

We welcome the European Taxonomy, a guide to help drive sustainable investements and green the financial sector. Find out more about how the taxonomy can be implemented in our whitepaper.


Navigating the alphabet soup

In this paper, we want to demystify the terminology and abbreviations so that you can understand the benefits of sustainable investing without being overwhelmed by jargon and acronyms.


Positive and negative approaches

Positive and negative approaches in Sustainable Investing: better understand them to align your investments with values and create outperformance through ESG.


The three most common questions on the new EU regulation

If you feel a bit lost faced with all the obscure acronyms that seem to be taking over the ESG debate these days, don’t worry, you are not alone in that situation. We have created this series of short briefing notes to provide you, as an investor, with the essential things you need to know to understand how what some have dubbed a “regulatory tsunami” will impact you and what you need to do next.


Does ESG Do What it Says? The New SFDR Requirements

Are 'Sustainable' investments truly sustainable? What Environmental, Social, and Governance factors are actually included in your investment? Does your investment really do what it says on the label? David Czupryna's overview of the new EU requirements concludes they are likely to clarify the situation, while the lingo may be a lot to learn.


Voting & Engagement: Pillars of sustainable investing

A guide to sustainable investing: Voting & Engagement – there is no sustainability without stewardship.

Candriam ESG promotion & influence guiding principles

Guiding principles on ESG Promotion & Influence 2021

The Global Strategic Committee monitors the association membership and decides who represents Candriam within those associations. The principle is that ESG experts actively and regularly participate to RI working groups within industry associations and associations with an ESG purpose. Leading roles are also supported.


Guiding principles on ESG Promotion & Influence 2020

Candriam is committed to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). This commitment is reflected in all of Candriam ’s activities as well as promoted in our relations with our stakeholders including the associations Candriam is member of.

Principles for Responsible Investment

Private Assessment Report

The Assessment Report is an export of the scores for all the assessed indicators and modules you responded to in the PRI Reporting Framework during the 2023 reporting period.


Public Transparency Report

This public Transparency Report is an export of the signatory’s responses to the PRI Reporting Framework during the 2023 reporting period. It includes the signatory’s responses to core indicators, as well as responses to plus indicators that the signatory has agreed to make public.

Transparency Code 

Please find the Transparency Codes on the Fund pages.

Sustainability Overview

Sustainability, and Responsibility, must be part of the personality and culture of the firm.  We need Responsibility to be a part of ourselves in order to translate it into your investments.  

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