Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management Co., Ltd. (President: Yoshio Hishida, hereinafter “SuMiTAM”) has agreed to collaborate with Legal & General Investment Management (CEO: Mark Zinkula, hereinafter “LGIM”), a subsidiary of the Legal & General Group (CEO: Nigel Wilson, hereinafter “L&G”), a major U.K. life insurer, on ESG(*1) activities.

SuMiTAM strives to further enhance its stewardship activities both in Japan and abroad, and will engage with companies to seek improvement in corporate values and sustained growth. In doing so, we hope to fulfill our responsibilities by maximizing our clients’ mid-long term returns.

1. Purpose of the collaboration
SuMiTAM has formulated and announced its response to, and its policies with regards to the Japan Stewardship Code. Based on our policies, we will draw on our experience as an institutional investor to engage with companies and seek self-induced improvement in corporate values. Through our ESG collaboration with LGIM, we hope to further bolster our engagement with overseas companies by making the most of LGIM’s experience and knowledge base. This in turn should contribute to raising the standards of our stewardship activities and improve the quality of our activities both domestically and internationally through synergies.

2. Collaborationon ESG activities
LGIM is not only known for its large pool of assets under management. It has also received high acclaim for its stewardship activities, including engagement with European companies and its exercise of voting rights. The ICSA (Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators), a U.K. corporate governance association, has presented LGIM with the Best Investor Engagement award from for 4 years running from 2015 to 2018. In our collaboration with LGIM, we have agreed to focus on ”climate change”, “gender diversity” and ”corporate transparency” among the list our joint ESG activities. SuMiTAM and LGIM will develop ESG solutions for the benefit of Japanese clients.

*1 ESG: Environmental, Social and Governance

[Reference]
L&G was established in London in 1836 and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. It is a major U.K. life insurer. LGIM is the investment management arm of L&G and manages JPY 137 trillion. It provides a wide variety of products and investment solutions to its global clients. Legal & General Investment Management is a large asset manager and a major global investor, working with a wide range of global clients, including pension schemes, sovereign wealth funds, fund distributors and retail investors.

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Any enquiries regarding the products should be made to:
Hirofumi Hayashi
Head of Investment Management Department
Sumitomo Mitsui Trust International Limited
155 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 3XU, United Kingdom
Direct: +44 20 7562 8405
Email: imd@smtil.com
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