Numeric: Man Numeric boosts responsible investment through ESG integration

Man Numeric has decided to convert its European Equity, US Large Cap Equity and Global Equity Ucits funds to dedicated responsible investment (RI) funds.This reflects the full integration of its proprietary environmental, social and governance (ESG) model into the systematic, bottom-up stock selection process, alongside existing Valuation and Information Flow models.The funds have been renamed to the following to reflect this change: Man Numeric RI European Equity, Man Numeric RI US Large Cap Equity and Man Numeric RI Global Equity.Man Numeric's new, fundamentally-based ESG model analyses the sustainability of a business and its ethical impact, and assigns a proprietary ESG score for each company in the investment universe. Using data science techniques, the model aggregates raw ESG data from leading providers, including MSCI and Sustainalytics, and undertakes a stringent process to interpret the data and extract useful information. This results in a holistic, multi-source industry-based view of ESG that provides a unique, insightful way to identify long-term ESG investing opportunities.Robert Furdak, co-chief investment officer at Man Numeric, said: "The launch of our proprietary ESG model is an important milestone in Man Numeric's ongoing effort to enhance our RI capabilities. We have entered a phase where ESG data has matured enough to make it ripe for quantitative investing, where the challenge now lies in how to convert this unstructured data into useful insights. In line with our existing investment philosophy, our ESG model uses a principles-based approach based on a deep understanding of the underlying data and academic research rather than datamining factors. It allows us to integrate a comprehensive ESG signal into client portfolios, which we believe helps us achieve the objective of enhanced returns with the added benefits of lower risk and turnover."