OceanRock Investments Inc., manager of the Meritas U.S. Equity Fund announced that it has concluded an agreement with Legg Mason Canada Inc. for the provision of portfolio investment advisory services for the Fund by Legg Mason and its U.S. affiliate, ClearBridge Advisors, LLC. Legg Mason will be the portfolio sub-adviser of the fund, replacing the current sub-adviser, Davis Selected Advisers, L.P., effective on or about June 1, 2011.
This is exciting news for socially responsible investors in Canada. The ESG Investment Program at Clearbridge Advisors applies ESG integration, active company engagement and shareholder advocacy to ClearBridge Advisor’s pure-style investment strategies.
ClearBridge Advisors ranks companies as Laggard, Beginner, Intermediate and Best in Class. “Ideally, portfolios would be made up entirely of best in class companies but that’s not possible in today’s world” said Andrew Goldsmith, Institutional Sales Manager at ClearBridge Advisors. So laggards are excluded from the portfolios and engagement is used to encourage the beginners and intermediates to do better.
In addition to managing money, ClearBridge Advisors also stresses the importance of company and thought- leader engagement. Not only are they signatories to the UN PRI, but Mary Jane McQuillan, Portfolio Manager and Head of Environmental, Social and Governance Investment at ClearBridge, is also a member of the UNEP FI Asset Management Working Group that produced some notable publications on responsible investing.
Congratulations Meritas, on giving Canadian retail advisors and investors access to an outstanding SRI manager.
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