NETHERLANDS – The e150bn Dutch superfund ABP has announced its first ‘experiment’ in socially responsible investing (SRI) with the creation of two internally managed SRI portfolios based on research provided by US group Innovest Strategic Value Advisors.

The portfolios, one for e100m in European equities and the other for $100m in US equities will be benchmarked against MSCI indices on regular investment return criteria.

René Maatman, chief counsel at the fund, comments: “ This is an experiment. We are managing these portfolios ourselves, but we are using research done by Innovest.
“ The idea is that we are taking a best in class approach, which should fit into our regular investment process.
“ It’s not a screening strategy.”
“We made a judgment on several research providers and decided that Innovest could best meet our needs for the approach we are taking.”

Maatman says a judgement on the financial returns for the SRI portfolios will be made after three years.