Funds Group: Matthews Asia Funds
Management Company: Matthews International Capital Management, LLC
Funds Affected: Matthews Asia ESG Fund
Principal Sustainable Investment Management Strategy: ESG Integration, Shareholder Engagement, Proxy Voting
Summary:
In addition to traditional financial data, the stock selection process takes into consideration ESG factors that the portfolio managers believe help identify companies with superior business models. There are no universally agreed upon objective standards for assessing ESG factors for companies. Rather, these factors tend to have many subjective characteristics, can be difficult to analyze, and frequently involve a balancing of a company’s business plans, objectives, actual conduct and other factors. ESG factors can vary over different periods and can evolve over time. They may also be difficult to apply consistently across regions, countries, industries or sectors. For these reasons, ESG standards may be aspirational and tend to be stated broadly and applied flexibly. In addition, investors and others may disagree as to whether a certain company satisfies ESG standards given the absence of generally accepted criteria. Examples of environmental factors that may be considered include, without limitation, low environmental footprint, pollution alleviation, and resource management. Examples of social factors that may be considered include, without limitation, financial inclusion, affordable products and services, workplace diversity and employee welfare. Examples of governance factors that may be considered include, without limitation, board independence, stated sustainability policy, and alignment of interests of shareholders and management. Businesses that meet one or more of the fund’s ESG standards are generally businesses that currently engage in practices that have the effect of, or in the opinion of Matthews, have the potential of, making human or business activity less destructive to the environment or businesses that promote positive social and economic developments. There can be no guarantee that a company that Matthews believes meets one or more of the fund’s ESG standards will actually conduct its affairs in a manner that is less destructive to the environment, or that promotes positive social and economic developments. The fund intends to engage its portfolio companies on ESG matters through active dialogue and proxy voting and by encouraging enhanced ESG disclosure.