Active Ownership

PFA follows a policy of active ownership, taking responsibility for the developments in the company that we invest in.

We take responsibility for our investments

PFA is an active owner who wants to influence the companies we invest in and ensure a responsible direction. The goal is to reduce sustainability risks1  in the companies for the benefit of both society and the companies' own long-term value creation. Ultimately, this is to ensure the best possible returns for our customers.

PFA primarily exercises active ownership by making use of the rights we have as an investor, and where PFA's size and investment capacity provide the opportunity to influence the companies. PFA manages the vast majority of our total investments internally within the Group in a collaboration between PFA's various investment teams and PFA's ESG team. This provides good conditions for converting the investments into influence.

PFA engages in dialogue with the companies we invest in on climate and environmental, social and management matters (also called ESG factors), where we assess whether it is possible and necessary to influence the company, and we vote at selected companies' general meetings. Our primary tools are to enter into dialogue with companies’ management teams and using our voting rights, but there are more options as well. We try to use the most efficient method, but it may vary depending on whether, for example, the company in question is a large international listed company or a smaller unlisted company. It can also be of great importance as to whether PFA acts alone or in collaboration with others.

1Here ‘sustainability risks’ is to be understood as environmental, social or governance events or circumstances that, if they materialise, would have a significant negative impact on the value of PFA’s investments.

PFA continuously monitors and screens its investments and engages in dialogue with companies. Our dialogue with the companies takes place both proactively and reactively:

PFA conducts a proactive dialogue with selected companies, where we seek to influence the company to change its business model and/or behaviour in order to reduce the company's sustainability risks before they become a problem. The aim is to strengthen the companies' long-term value creation and thereby also strengthen the return for PFA's customers.

Reactive dialogue takes place on the basis of breaches that have already occurred or suspected breaches of the international norms, standards and principles on which PFA's Policy for Responsible Investments and Active Ownership is based. The purpose of such reactive dialogue is to clarify the specific controversy and get the companies we invest in to implement policies, strategies and concrete processes so that similar incidents are avoided in the future.

Both reactive and proactive dialogues can be either PFA-driven or done in collaboration with others.

In 2023, PFA entered into proactive dialogue with a total of 109 companies and reactive dialogue with a total of 61 companies – either run directly by PFA, in collaboration with like-minded investors, or by an external advisor.

 

 

 

PFA's possible divestment or exclusion of companies is based on an assessment of whether it is sufficiently possible to change the company's behaviour and thereby reduce the exposure to sustainability risks that could negatively affect the value of the company. In addition, we exclude companies that systematically and regularly violate international norms, standards and principles on which PFA's Policy for Responsible Investments and Active Ownership is based.

 

Voting at companies’ annual general meetings is the most direct and regulatory tool that shareholders possess in terms of influencing a company’s management team. PFA follows the management of the companies we have invested in, and contributes via its voting at selected general meetings to ensure a value-creating and sustainable course in the given companies. We vote at the general meetings where we can make the biggest difference and where the importance of our commitment is greatest

 

 

International investor partnerships on dialogues

PFA engages in dialogue both on our own and in partnerships with other investors and business partners. For example, PFA is an active part of the investor-driven initiative called Climate Action 100+, which is aimed at bringing together several of the largest international investors to work together to ensure that the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases are contributing to the green transition.

 

PFA has also chosen to join the dialogue initiative Nature Action 100, the purpose of which is to gather global investors to engage in dialogue with the companies in the world that are most dependent on and have the greatest impact on nature.

 

We are also a key player in the Nordic Engagement Cooperation (NEC) investor partnership which, in addition to PFA, consists of Folksam from Sweden and Ilmarinen from Finland. NEC cooperates to carry out active ownership dialogues with companies which all three entities invest in and where there are climate/environmental, social or governance challenges. This includes an increasing strategic focus on human rights.

Read more about our work as an active investor