SDK Incorporated into 3 ESG Investment Indexes for 2 Straight Years

July 23, 2018
Showa Denko K.K.

In July 2018, Showa Denko (SDK) (Tokyo:4004) was incorporated continuously for two straight years into three ESG indexes for investment: “FTSE Blossom Japan Index” provided by FTSE International Limited and Frank Russel Company (FTSE Russel, a member of London Stock Exchange Group); “MSCI Japan ESG Select Leaders Index” and “MSCI Japan Empowering Women Index” provided by MSCI Incorporated (MSCI). FTSE and MSCI are world-famous index providers.

Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) of Japan selected the three stock price indexes mentioned above through open competition in order to execute “ESG conscious investment” which pays close attention to environment, social, and governance practices of corporations. GPIF adopted these three ESG indexes as benchmarks and started full-scale ESG conscious investment in 2017.

FTSE Blossom Japan Index is designed to provide market participants with a tool to identify and measure the performance of Japanese companies that demonstrate strong environment, social and governance (ESG) practices. MSCI Japan ESG Select Leaders Index is constructed using the MSCI Japan IMI Top 500 Index (parent index) and targets best ESG performers among issues included in the parent index. MSCI Japan Empowering Women Index evaluates companies promoting and maintaining gender diversity.

In addition to these three ESG indexes, SDK has been included in the “Morningstar Socially Responsible Investment Index (MS-SRI),” which is provided by Morningstar Japan K.K., for five consecutive years and the “SNAM Sustainability Index,” which is provided by Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Asset Management Co., Ltd. (SNAM), for seven consecutive years.

The Showa Denko Group believes that the philosophy of “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) should be the basic principle of the management of the Group. The Group will continue positively performing various activities that lead to realization of “a business that contributes to society” which render services to all stakeholders through environment conscious business activities, provision of products, technologies and services responding to the needs of customers and society, improvement in corporate governance and compliance, and promotion of management to make the most of human resource diversity.

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