Takumi Shibata

Nikko Asset Management Co., Ltd. (“Nikko AM”) has announced its support for efforts towards commitment to the four areas of impact (Investor disclosure; Corporate engagement; Policy advocacy; Investment) under The Investor Agenda, for the global investor community to address climate change.

Nikko AM Representative Director, President & CEO Takumi Shibata said, “We recognise the substantial challenge that climate change represents and are proud to be the first asset manager headquartered in Asia to support efforts to address the four areas of The Investor Agenda, acting in the interests of our clients as a responsible fiduciary.”

The Investor Agenda supports asset owners and managers to act to help keep global temperature rise below 2˚ Celsius, while calling for government implementation of the Paris Agreement. It does this through four main areas:

1. Investor disclosure – Commit to report annually on the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), the industry-led effort formed by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to manage the physical and transition risks associated with climate change.
2. Corporate engagement – Sign Climate Action 100+, to engage heavy greenhouse gas emitters to improve governance on climate change, and reduce and disclose their emissions. In addition, support CDP’s disclosure requests.
3. Policy advocacy – Sign the Global Investor Statement to Government on Climate Change, which calls on world leaders to do their part to
   1. Achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement;
   2. Accelerate private sector investment into the low carbon transition;
   3. Commit to improve climate-related financial reporting.
4. Investment – Publicly report on commitments and capabilities in the investment process, such as integrating climate change into decision-making, and offering low carbon and climate resilient investments, to showcase investor actions and build a baseline to develop further initiatives.

Nikko AM also joins the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC), to collaborate with its peers on climate change considerations particularly in Asia.

The Investor Agenda has been developed by seven partner organisations: Asia Investor Group on Climate Change, CDP, Ceres, Investor Group on Climate Change, Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), and UNEP Finance Initiative. These organisations intend to produce an annual report on the actions that investors have taken and on the outcomes that have been achieved.

Nikko AM recently launched its Corporate Sustainability Department, tasked to bolster its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) commitments both in the way in which it manages itself and how it communicates its approach to investing. As part of this, it has established a microsite featuring details on its corporate ESG commitments and activities, as well as how ESG is embedded in the investment process.

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Mari Yamauchi

At an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting, Nikko Asset Management Co., Ltd. (“Nikko AM”) has confirmed the appointment of Mari Yamauchi as Outside Director.

With Ms. Yamauchi’s appointment, Nikko AM’s Board of Directors consists of ten – three executive and seven nonexecutive directors. Of them, five are Outside Directors, including Chairman of the Board Yoichiro Iwama, appointed in May this year. In line with its fiduciary duty, Nikko AM leverages the independence of these outside directors to ensure that it remains an objective and transparent asset manager.

Since April 2014, Ms. Yamauchi has been a visiting Professor at the Doshisha University Institute for Technology, Enterprise and Competitiveness focused on management and employment systems. Prior to this, she held roles at Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Securities Japan, and served as Managing Director and Head of Products & Services for the Wealth Management unit at UBS Securities Japan. She has also been a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

Nikko AM Representative Director, President & CEO Takumi Shibata said, “I am honored to welcome Ms. Yamauchi to the Board in view of her service at global financial institutions, research on management, employment and human resources, and extensive experience across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. I am confident that her expertise will contribute to strengthening Nikko AM’s governance.”

Nikko AM’s fiduciary and environmental, social, and governance principles guide its operations. The Firm stands by the highest standards of stewardship, maintaining a high level of transparency and bolstering management checks including through these outside directors.

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Takumi Shibata

Nikko Asset Management (“Nikko AM”) has announced a partnership with Japan for UNHCR, a national partner of UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency), whereby Nikko AM globally supports funding towards school supplies and textbooks, access to schools, and extracurricular and classroom facilities through the UNHCR Educate A Child (EAC) programme.

“Today, 65 million people have been forced from their homes worldwide, among them nearly 22.5 million refugees – with over half under the age of 18. With this partnership, Nikko AM aims to help address this humanitarian crisis and give these children a chance at a brighter future,” said Nikko Asset Management President & CEO Takumi Shibata.

Since 2012, with UNHCR, the Educate A Child (EAC) programme has helped tens of thousands of refugee children to attend schools in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. EAC is a global programme of the Education Above All (EAA) Foundation, which has become a vital supporter of UNHCR work to extend quality primary education to refugee children around the world.

“We sincerely welcome Nikko AM’s support for education for refugee children. Approximately half of the 6 million school-age children under UNHCR’s mandate have no school to go to. With education, we can meaningfully impact the future of these children, giving them the tools to positively shape both their countries of asylum and their home countries when they return,” said Saburo Takizawa, Chairman of Japan for UNHCR.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organisation dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people. It works to ensure that everybody has the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge, having fled violence, persecution, war or disaster at home.

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Takumi Shibata

Nikko Asset Management (“Nikko AM”) last week announced that it is enhancing its disruptive innovation focused investment solutions by acquiring a minority stake in ARK Investment Management LLC (“ARK”).

In this partnership Nikko AM will obtain exclusivity to offer ARK products and investment strategies in Japan and the Asia Pacific while its investment team intends to continue working closely with ARK’s disruptive innovation focused analysts.

ARK has served as a sub advisor to Nikko AM’s Global Fintech Equity Fund, launched in Japan in December 2016 with total assets of over JPY 75 billion as of July 2017. The now enhanced partnership is a natural progression from that successful start.

“We are extremely excited to welcome ARK to the Nikko AM family. The established expertise of our in-house investment team combined with ARK’s strategies focused on disruptive technology and innovation enable progressive solutions for our clients. Our Global Fintech Equity Fund is an example of the success we have already achieved together, and we are confident of more to come with this deepening of the connection,” said Nikko Asset Management President & CEO Takumi Shibata.

ARK is a leading US-based investment manager that utilizes an open research ecosystem to develop insights into disruptive innovation. Its analysts are organized by disruptive innovation themes that span sectors, geographies, and market capitalizations. ARK derives alpha by investing in leaders, enablers, and beneficiaries of disruptive technologies, with low overlap to broad-market indices. The firm has launched five ETFs, including four active ETFs, investing in themes such as Deep Learning and Mobility-as-a-Service. In addition, ARK has established an investment advisory service for institutional clients which utilizes ARK’s innovative strategies to diversify portfolios.

“We are honored and delighted that Nikko AM has cemented our partnership with an ownership interest in ARK,” said ARK CEO & Chief Investment Officer Catherine D. Wood. “Nikko AM’s appetite for innovation focused investment solutions is well aligned with ARK’s conviction that innovation is key to growth. An entirely new market of investors will benefit now from Nikko AM’s ability to deliver disruptive innovation, which is transforming both industries and the global economy, through ARK’s investment strategies.”

With Nikko AM’s investment, Catherine D. Wood, ARK’s founder and CEO, continues to own a majority stake in ARK, and Resolute Investment Managers, Inc., ARK’s strategic partner in the US, remains a minority shareholder in ARK.

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Al Clark

Australian and New Zealand investors’ sizable allocations to global assets is leading Nikko Asset Management to make a major global product push into these markets, the company announced yesterday.

The Tokyo-based asset manager is also aligning the current Tyndall brand names in both Australia and New Zealand with the firm’s global name, Nikko Asset Management.

The asset manager will use its expanded investment expertise and capabilities to provide new products to institutional and retail clients in both countries. In August, Nikko Asset Management formed a new global multi-asset team led by Al Clark. In the same month, it added a global active equity capability headed by William Low, and in October 2013, an Asia ex-Japan equity team led by Peter Sartori.

“We are one company and therefore should share one name globally as Asia’s premier global asset manager,” said Takumi Shibata, president and chief executive officer of Nikko Asset Management. “The investment teams, the sales and marketing teams and the back office teams are all working collaboratively for the benefit of our clients. One brand simply reflects what is already working for us.”

Nikko Asset Management plans to introduce several global strategies through its local subsidiaries in Australia and New Zealand in the coming months, while continuing to offer products investing in local securities. The move will allow the firm to leverage its significant global resources in meeting the varied needs of investors.

“We are very pleased to be expanding our global offering to Australian investors,” said Mike Davis, Managing Director of Nikko Asset Management, Australia. “The evolution of our business over the past three years as part of Asia’s premier global asset manager has added to our depth of investment capabilities to meet the sophisticated needs of our clients in this competitive environment. Approaching the market as Nikko Asset Management in Australia will allow us to differentiate the value we bring to our clients, borne out of our Asian insights.”

The firm’s Australian operation has A$24 billion (US$23 billion) in assets under management, representing approximately 14 percent of Nikko Asset Management’s total assets of US$168 billion as of June 2014.

“Nikko Asset Management is well known globally, and we are excited to bring more of the firm’s global expertise to our clients,” said Peter Lynn, Managing Director of Nikko Asset Management, New Zealand. “With this brand transition, there is no change to our investment teams, their investment philosophy, processes or portfolios. As one company, with one name, we will further distinguish our offering to clients in New Zealand.”

The company’s New Zealand operation, which is based in Auckland, is the only foreign asset management firm operating in the country. Its assets under management reached NZ$3.8 billion (US$3.3 billion) as of June 2014.

According to a June 2013 survey conducted by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority[1], some 31 percent of superannuation fund assets were allocated to global investments, with 25 percent in equity and 6 percent in fixed income. Meanwhile, in New Zealand, a survey of leading balanced funds by Aon Hewitt[2] reveals that 48 percent of assets were allocated globally, with 32 percent in equity and 16 percent in fixed income.

Nikko Asset Management is conducting its inaugural Foreword client event this week in Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland. Speakers include the firm’s global head of investment Yu-Ming Wang, in addition to the portfolio managers in charge of its leading global and local investment strategies.

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[1]Annual Superannuation Bulletin June 2013 (revised February 5, 2014)

[2] The Aon Investment Update, Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting July 2014

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Charles Beazley

Nikko Asset Management (Nikko AM), a related company to Tyndall AM, has acquired the Asia-Pacific investment manager Treasury Asia Asset Management Limited (TAAM).

TAAM’s Singapore and Sydney-based team of eight highly experienced and successful investment professionals significantly enhances Nikko AM’s ability to provide institutional-quality Asian equity products to its clients and prospects in markets worldwide.

“We couldn’t be more pleased to welcome Peter Sartori and his team to our company,” said Takumi Shibata, executive chairman of Tokyo-based Nikko Asset Management.

“This acquisition brings us sophisticated Asian equity strategies, which are gaining well-deserved traction among investors around the world,” said Charles Beazley, president and CEO of Nikko Asset Management. “The team will offer products to institutional and retail investors, who deserve nothing less than the highest quality products, and which TAAM has a distinguished track record of delivering.”

Peter Sartori founded TAAM along with Sydney-based Treasury Group Ltd in 2005. The eight-member team includes portfolio managers, analysts and a dealer. The team’s investment style revolves around bottom-up stock picking of mid- to large-cap equities, with a focus on long-term holdings of high-conviction names.

“Our investment style adds value and has attracted capital from some of the most discriminating investors in the world,” said Peter Sartori, TAAM’s chief investment officer.

“We feel there is a perfect fit with Nikko AM, and this will allow us to do what we do best, which is to generate alpha for clients. Our sectoral coverage approach will be highly complementary with Nikko AM’s more geographic and thematic focus. In turn, we look forward to working with Nikko AM’s professionals in the region, Europe and in North America to build wealth for investors.”

Nikko AM has designated its Singapore office, led by Eleanor Seet, as the centre of excellence for managing Asian securities. The company is focused on creating innovative investment strategies that will allow clients to capitalise on the superior growth dynamics of the economies in the Asian region. Nikko AM currently has over US$156 billion in assets under management.

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