More than half of investors prefer engagement over divestment on ESG

AIC study

55% of private investors have said they preferred engaging with a company over its ESG practices, but exclusion still forms an important part of the investment case.

A 402-person study from the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), carried out by Research in Finance, looked into the usefulness of various ESG disclosures for clients making their investment decisions. It found that although the majority of the investors polled were "not convinced" that divestment was the answer, the most useful disclosure was a list of exclusions about what the company would not investment in. Each contributor ranked the various measures from one to five, the latter meaning ‘very useful'. An exclusion list averaged 4.2, just ahead of a positive screening lis...