IR & ESG
SUPPLIERS
October 2019
Italgas shares are in a new light after their inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index World, the most important global sustainability index. Also the presence in the FTSE4Good Series Indices is confirmed.
In the annual review released on 13 September 2019, Italgas has been included for the first time in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index Word (DJSI World). With 67 points scored, Italgas is among the three best-in-class company in the utility sector, together with the Spanish Naturgy and the Japanese Osaka Gas, according to the results of SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA), the most comprehensive and structured tool for collection and rating of ESG data.
In 2018, with a score of 61, Italgas succeeded in entering the DJSI Enlarged. The 6 additional points achieved this year allowed the stock to reach the threshold to be included in the main index, the DJSI World. This year, the Index is made up of 318 companies, selected from more than 3,500 organizations in the world that were invited to join the assessment. In 2019, Italgas was assigned a score of 67 – not so far from the score of 72 assigned to the other 317 current members of the DJSIW, while well above the score of 39 assigned on average to the utilities.
The effective ESG performance of Italgas are appreciated not only by the CSA, the assessment conducted by SAM. On 11 September 2019, Italgas shares were also confirmed as a component of the FTSE4Good Index, with a score of 3.7/5, which is definitely above the average of gas distribution companies (2.5/5). More specifically, Italgas obtained the maximum score for anticorruption, work standard, human rights and attention to the community.
The presence in those two indices has considerable effects. First, to be part of an index used as a benchmark by SRI funds provides an opportunity to be included in a relevant number of specialized portfolios. Today, the opportunity is even bigger, since most asset managers base the screening of investable companies on their fulfillment of strict ESG criteria – criteria that are changing every year – selecting those with the best sustainability ratings.
Stocks, like Italgas, that have successfully passed the assessment processes of the most prestigious ethical indices – processes based on public data and transparent rules – have a great edge, both for the visibility they can enjoy among analysts and for the higher probability of attracting long-term investors in their shareholders base.