Natixis, BNY Mellon IM subsidiaries exit CA100+
US headquartered asset manager Loomis Sayles and UK-based firm Walter Scott have left the Climate Action 100+ (CA100+), claiming concerns relating to financial materiality.
Loomis Sayles is a subsidiary of Natixis Investment Management with $282 billion in assets under management, while Walter Scott is part of BNY Mellon Investment Management and has $81 billion in AUM.
A third independent asset manager, Panagora, is also due to leave the CA100+, and has $44 billion in AUM.
The CA100+ is an investor-led initiative, looking to engage with the world’s highest carbon emitting companies to shift them onto credible net zero pathways.
It recently entered into its second implementation phase, which requires its lead investors to submit an annual schedule of engagement, and pushes firms that investors are engaged with to implement climate transition plans.
Natixis as a wider body is not part of the CA100+, as portfolio management activities at the firm are conducted by each of individual investment affiliates.
According to a statement from Natixis: “Each of our affiliates has autonomy over its investment process, including whether to participate in investment consortia such as this.”
Natixis subsidiaries DNCA Finance, Dorval Asset Management, Mirova, and Credit Ostrum Asset Management remain members of the CA100+.
Although Walter Scott has now left the CA100+, BNY Mellon subsidiaries Insight Investment, Mellon Investment Group, and Newton Investment Management all remain members of the initiative.
Mellon Investment Group was delisted in October 2022 and subsequently readmitted to the CA100+ earlier this year, over issues relating to missed reporting deadlines.
The CA100+ has previously been caught up in the anti-ESG movement taking hold in the US, with Arizona’s attorney general Mark Brnovich going so far as to allege the organisation’s activities equated to unlawful market manipulation.
Newly released figures by the CA100+ show that investors actively engaging companies have increasingly used its so-called flagged voting platform as a tool in their engagements. As this year's proxy season has come to a close, 76 climate votes were flagged at 20 companies – up from 69 votes at 19 companies last year.
