Arabesque Partners

Arabesque Partners (or Arabesque Asset Management) is an Anglo-German investment management firm founded in 2013,[1] with headquarters in London and a research hub in Frankfurt. The company offers a quantitative approach to sustainable investing.

Arabesque combines systematic portfolio technology with the values of the United Nations Global Compact, the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI) and balance sheet and business activity screening.

Central to Arabesque’s investment process is the integration of non-financial Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) information into fundamental and quantitative financial models.[2]

History

Arabesque was developed at Barclays Bank PLC between 2011 and 2013 in partnership with the universities of Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge and Maastricht, together with the Fraunhofer Society.

The company was established as a partnership in 2013 through a management buyout of all rights and intellectual property.[3]

Organisation

Arabesque Asset Management Ltd is regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Arabesque (Deutschland) GmbH is based in Frankfurt with a focus on research, programming and advisory.

Arabesque was founded by Omar Selim, who is the Chief Executive Officer based in London. He was formerly Head of Global Markets for institutional clients in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe at Barclays Bank PLC.[4]

In June 2015, leading Harvard academic Dr Robert Eccles was appointed as the first chairman of Arabesque.[5] Dr Eccles, who is also Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, is one of the original founders of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board and also a member of International Integrated Reporting Council, a global not-for-profit organisation, incorporated in England and Wales.[6]

In August 2015, Georg Kell was announced as Vice Chairman-designate of Arabesque.[7] Kell was the founding Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest voluntary corporate sustainability initiative with over 8,000 corporate signatories from more than 160 countries.

He also oversaw the conception and launch of the Global Compact’s sister initiatives on investment, the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), and on education, the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), together with the Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative.[8]

Arabesque’s Advisory Board includes; Professor Gordon L Clark, Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford; Professor Dr Rob Bauer, Professor of Finance, Maastricht University SBE; Professor Dr Michael Griebel, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI; Professor David Tuckett, Director of the UCL Centre for the Study of Decision-Making Uncertainty, Faculty of Brain Sciences and Professor Philip Treleaven, Professor of Computer Science at University College London (UCL).

Arabesque Asset Management is a registered member of the UN Global Compact,[9] the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF)[10] and the European Investment Forum (EUROSIF).[11]

Investment Strategy

Since its inception, Arabesque has been focused on developing investments that are aligned to the UN Global Compact, the UN PRI and the AAOIFI standards.

The firm’s investment strategy uses extra-financial (ESG) information to improve portfolio quality and deliver financial outperformance. The investment process combines ESG criteria with fundamental analysis and portfolio and risk management.[12]

Research

In September 2014, Arabesque partnered with the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford to release a report entitled ‘From the Stockholder to the Stakeholder’.[13]

The enhanced meta-study cites over 190 sources and identifies a correlation between high Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) quality and financial performance.[14]

In January 2015, a case study on the CEO of Arabesque, Omar Selim, was published by George Serafeim and Rebecca Henderson at Harvard Business School, and was taught to MBA students at Harvard Business School.[15]

Awards

In February 2015, Arabesque’s Systematic Fund was awarded ‘Die Fondsinnovation des Jahres 2015’ (Fund Innovation 2015) by Boerse.[16]

In July 2015, Arabesque won Euromoney's Global Investor/ ISF Investment Excellence award for 'SRI Manager of the Year 2015'.[17]

References

  1. ↑ Kao, Patricia (27 June 2013). "Former Barclays Bankers Led by Selim Set Up Quant Funds Manager". Bloomberg Business. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  2. ↑ Williams, James (2015-04-21). "A quantitative approach" (Fund Links). Institutional Asset Manager. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  3. ↑ "UNITED NATIONS GOBAL COMPACT COMMUNICATION ON PROGRESS 2015" (PDF). UN GLOBAL COMPACT. UN GLOBAL COMPACT. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  4. ↑ "Omar Selim – Arabesque Asset Management Mein Geld und Lipper im Interview mit Omar Selim" (PDF). Offene Investmentfonds. Mein Geld Anlegermagazin.
  5. ↑ Jessop, Simon (30 June 2015). "Top Harvard academic to be chairman of fund house Arabesque". Reuters UK. Reuters. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
  6. ↑ "Board of Directors". Sustainability Accounting Standards Board. SASVB. Retrieved 30 June 2015.
  7. ↑ "UN Global Compact's Outgoing Director to Join Board of Values-Based Asset Management Firm". UN Global Compact. Global Compact Network UK. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  8. ↑ "Georg Kell Announced as Vice Chairman-Designate of Arabesque Partners". International Business Times. IBT Media. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  9. ↑ Abd Rahim, Haliza. "Global Compact UK Network Members". UN Global Compact. Global Compact Network UK. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  10. ↑ Lindegaard, Pamela. "UKSIF Directory". UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association. UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  11. ↑ "Eurosif March 2015 Newsletter". EUROSIF. Eurosif. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  12. ↑ "Meet ... Andreas Feiner (Partner, Arabesque) & Mohamed Donia (CEO, IdealRatings)". SRI Connect. SRI-CONNECT Ltd. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  13. ↑ Green, Sophia (21 September 2014). "The Bottom Line is a Sustainability One" (Markets). Financial Times. FTFM. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  14. ↑ Medland, Dina (15 September 2014). "'From Stockholder To Stakeholder' Means 'No' To Short-Termism For Better Results" (Leadership). Forbes. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  15. ↑ Serafim, George; Henderson, Rebecca; Gombos, Shannon. "Omar Selim: Building a Values-Based Asset Management Firm (A)". Harvard Business School Faculty & Research. Harvard Business School. Retrieved 15 June 2015.
  16. ↑ "Systematic Arabesque: The Fund Innovation of 2015". Borse Online. Boerse. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  17. ↑ "SRI Manager of the Year: Arabesque Asset Management". Global Investor. Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. 3 July 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
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