SEB IM Fallstudie

Case Study: SEB Investment Management - Turning Risk into Opportunity

SEB works with large corporate and financial institutions in Sweden and holds a forefront position in providing corporate services also in Norway, Denmark and Finland. While it provides universal banking services in Sweden and the Baltics, SEB also offers services in Germany, where it engages mainly with medium sized corporates. SEB's presence reaches beyond the European borders with international centers in New York, London, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore, among others. SEB's customer-base consists of 3.000 large corporates and institutions, 40.000 small and midsize companies, and 4 million private customers. The mission of SEB and its 16'000 employees is to help people and businesses thrive by providing quality advice and appropriate financial resources. SEB Investment Management AB is SEB's Swedish fund company and one of the largest asset managers in the Nordics, managing assets of more than 500 billion SEK.

What is the context?

SEB IM has a strong ambition to contribute to sustainable growth and to make a difference for customers, staff and the society at large. SEB IM became a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI) in 2008 and has been striving to make sustainability a core part of its business. SEB IM has integrated sustainability factors into its investment processes and made the management of environmental, social and governance impacts associated with businesses a priority among its portfolio companies.

What was the challenge?

Due to the global nature of their investments, SEB IM was looking for a partner who could provide an analysis of their investment carbon footprint with the appropriate depth and coverage. To have external assurance on the quality of the evaluation, SEB IM sought out a specialist who could complete the task with a sound methodology. SEB IM's ambition is to work together with portfolio companies to evaluate potential risks and opportunities of their businesses, and to secure sustainable value creation. It was thus important that all results could be communicated to portfolio managers, clients and other stakeholders in a transparent manner.

How did SEB IM proceed?

South Pole was first recommended to SEB IM by a client who had already had a good relationship with South Pole for a few years. Before starting to work with South Pole, SEB IM contacted a number of suppliers to compare their proposed coverage and methodology and evaluate their proposals. In view of SEB's presence in several different markets, it finally decided to work with South Pole given the Group's international reach and expertise.

What solution did SEB IM choose?

SEB IM chose South Pole's Climate Impact Assessment solution, which entails a fully transparent GHG emissions analysis of a portfolio. In addition to addressing the requirements for institutional investors underlined in article 173 of the French Energy Transition, the solution also enables investors to commit to the Montreal Carbon pledge.

What were the key benefits for SEB IM?

SEB IM was able to leverage the results of South Pole's analysis in several ways. These included:

• Compiling their report to the Montreal Carbon Pledge
• Enabling fund managers to better understand the issues linked to and the impact of their investments.
• Communicating with clients in a clear manner, with the ability to provide absolute numbers and benchmarks on climate-related impacts.
• Further enhancing stakeholder engagement by providing valuable, fact-based information to companies during stakeholder meetings.