SUSTAINABILITY

Preamble

Sustainability is increasingly becoming the focus of business and investment. Resources are not infinitely available, which requires a considerate approach to the environment. Business operations that are socially acceptable and committed to good corporate governance have more underpinning in the long term than short-term profit maximization at the expense of long-term success.

In addition to long-term successful business development, pfp Advisory GmbH pursues the goal of creating value for our customers, business partners and employees, and also wants to assume social responsibility. We have always thought in terms of the long term. Our investment approach is geared towards the long term, and very good results have been achieved over the long term. Our positioning as a company, in which the managing directors as co-owners are very interested in a sustainable orientation, is also long-term. Long-term is also the protagonists for our core product.

Many companies today are realigning themselves with sustainability criteria, we have always taken them for granted: we do not travel more than necessary and use environmentally friendly means of transport. We consider it a privilege to live in Germany and, of course, pay taxes here on the profits we generate. We attach great importance to our long-term success factors: in-house research, an investment process developed in-house and direct exchange with company leaders.

Sustainability as an investment factor

The products advised by pfp are currently classified in accordance with Article 6 of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (EU) 2019/2088. They are therefore not considered sustainable products within the meaning of this regulation.

In principle, pfp Advisory has corporate processes for how we deal with sustainability risks when assessing potential target companies. We analyze companies completely ourselves, for example with regard to their business model and important key figures. This procedure enables a stringent assessment of their sustainability, which is not possible when simply using rating scores. This is because, on the one hand, there are very many listed companies that are not yet covered by ESG rating agencies, and on the other hand, the results of the ESG rating agencies are incomprehensibly poorly correlated, which indicates that the criteria used are not yet fully developed.

pfp Advisory excludes companies that are clearly focused on controversial weapons or gambling, for example, from its investment universe and blacklists them. In addition, we also work with criteria that implicitly or explicitly cover the sustainability of business models and good corporate governance in our comprehensive fundamental analysis screening. Nevertheless, we emphasize once again that the funds advised by pfp Advisory are not considered sustainable products within the meaning of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation.

Sustainability aspects in remuneration at pfp Advisory

The corporate strategy of pfp Advisory GmbH is geared towards the long term. We do not support remuneration approaches that are contrary to relevant ESG criteria. We reject excessive variable remuneration. Likewise, we do not work with performance fees that only reward short-term success.

Inclusion of non-financial performance indicators in the daily work of pfp Advisory using concrete examples

Environmental concerns

The management of pfp Advisory is aware of the limited availability of resources on earth and acts very prudently in its day-to-day activities with regard to actions that are potentially harmful to the environment. We take care to treat nature responsibly. For example, we prefer to conduct business trips using means of local and long-distance public transport. Most of the time we travel by train; we only use planes in very rare exceptional cases. pfp Advisory employees also travel to the office mainly by public transport. When using the office premises, pfp Advisory makes sure that the consumption of electricity and heating is justifiable. Likewise, it tries to work digitally as much as possible in everyday office life and to keep paper consumption within reasonable limits.

Employee concerns

pfp Advisory currently employs one employee in addition to the management. pfp Advisory stands for work in a pleasant working atmosphere in which the concerns of employees are also highly relevant. An "open door" approach to work is exercised just as much as a flat hierarchy. pfp Advisory places a high value on the compatibility of work and family and has, for example, always granted the option of working from a home office. The company emphasizes that it values people regardless of age, gender, religion or origin.

Social and cultural commitment

The managing directors of pfp Advisory are convinced that the happiness of being healthy and successful cannot be taken for granted. For this reason, they are also successively expanding their social commitment in parallel with the company's growth. In 2020, for example, as in the previous year, donations were made to the German Childhood Cancer Foundation (“Deutsche Kinderkrebsstiftung”), “Mainlichtblick e.V.” and the "Kindernotfonds" project of the "Frankfurter Kinderbüro". In addition, the "Familienhörbuch" project was supported for the first time. This project enables young palliative patients to leave a personal audio book for children and relatives who have been orphaned at an early age.