Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken : Equity Research launches ambitious new ESG evaluation approach

SEB has launched a new ESG assessment methodology that quantifies how environmental, social and governance factors affect companies' financial performance. The initial feedback from institutional investor clients has been universally positive.

Martin Nilsson, Head of SEB Equities.

SEAM - SEB Research's ESG Assessment Methodology, is a novel value-centric approach to ESG analysis. It considers which ESG factors will have a material impact on companies' financial performance, and then quantifies those impacts.
The method has been developed in response to customers' desire to gain insight into how sustainability factors affect the investment conditions for the companies that SEB analyses.

'From what we can judge, SEAM is a considerably more ambitious, systematic and forward-looking analysis than what has been offered in the market to date,' says Martin Nilsson, Head of SEB Equities.

'We have received an overwhelmingly positive response from customers. They appreciate the approach's stringency and objectivity, and that it provides new insights to inform the challenging task of ESG integration into the investment decision-making process'.

The analyses are performed individually at the company level. In addition to valuation and responsibility analyses, the framework also encompasses assessment of a company's performance with respect to the climate impact thresholds that are laid out in the EU taxonomy. Results are entirely integrated in SEB's equity analyses, and so are accessible for all customers that purchase Equity Research's analysis service.

At present, SEAM analyses have been conducted and published for more than 50 companies covered by Equity Research. Roll-out is a priority, with an expectation of completing analyses on half of the coverage by year end, and completion of the task before midsummer 2021.