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Please read the following terms and conditions carefully. By accessing rbcgam.com and any pages thereof (the "site"), you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions as well as any future revisions RBC Global Asset Management Inc. ("RBC GAM Inc.") may make in its discretion. If you do not agree to the terms and conditions below, do not access this website, or any pages thereof. Phillips, Hager & North Investment Management is a division of RBC GAM Inc. PH&N Institutional is the institutional business division of RBC GAM Inc.

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Products and services of RBC GAM Inc. are only offered in jurisdictions where they may be lawfully offered for sale. The contents of this site do not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy products or services to any person in a jurisdiction where such offer or solicitation is considered unlawful.

No information included on this site is to be construed as investment advice or as a recommendation or a representation about the suitability or appropriateness of any product or service. The amount of risk associated with any particular investment depends largely on the investor's own circumstances.

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The material on this site has been provided by RBC GAM Inc. for information purposes only and may not be reproduced, distributed or published without the written consent of RBC GAM Inc. It is for general information only and is not, nor does it purport to be, a complete description of the investment solutions and strategies offered by RBC GAM Inc., including RBC Funds, RBC Private Pools, PH&N Funds, RBC Corporate Class Funds and RBC ETFs (the "Funds"). If there is an inconsistency between this document and the respective offering documents, the provisions of the respective offering documents shall prevail.

RBC GAM Inc. takes reasonable steps to provide up-to-date, accurate and reliable information, and believes the information to be so when published. Information obtained from third parties is believed to be reliable, but no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made by RBC GAM Inc., its affiliates or any other person as to its accuracy, completeness, reliability or correctness. RBC GAM Inc. assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions in such information. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of RBC GAM Inc. and are subject to change without notice.

About Our Funds

The Funds are offered by RBC GAM Inc. and distributed through authorized dealers. Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with the Funds. Please read the offering materials for a particular fund before investing. The performance data provided are historical returns, they are not intended to reflect future values of any of the funds or returns on investment in these funds. Further, the performance data provided assumes reinvestment of distributions only and does not take into account sales, redemption, distribution or optional charges or income taxes payable by any unitholder that would have reduced returns. The unit values of non-money market funds change frequently. For money market funds, there can be no assurances that the fund will be able to maintain its net asset value per unit at a constant amount or that the full amount of your investment in the fund will be returned to you. Mutual fund securities are not guaranteed by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation or by any other government deposit insurer. Past performance may not be repeated. ETF units are bought and sold at market price on a stock exchange and brokerage commissions will reduce returns. RBC ETFs do not seek to return any predetermined amount at maturity. Index returns do not represent RBC ETF returns.

About RBC Global Asset Management

RBC Global Asset Management is the asset management division of Royal Bank of Canada ("RBC") which includes the following affiliates around the world, all indirect subsidiaries of RBC: RBC GAM Inc. (including Phillips, Hager & North Investment Management and PH&N Institutional), RBC Global Asset Management (U.S.) Inc., RBC Global Asset Management (UK) Limited, RBC Global Asset Management (Asia) Limited, BlueBay Asset Management LLP, and BlueBay Asset Management USA LLC.

Forward-Looking Statements

This website may contain forward-looking statements about general economic factors which are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risk and uncertainties, so it is possible that predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved. We caution you not to place undue reliance on these statements as a number of important factors could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statement. All opinions in forward-looking statements are subject to change without notice and are provided in good faith but without legal responsibility.

Accept Decline

The Canadian Equity - ESG Exclusions strategy seeks to provide significant long-term capital appreciation through investment primarily in equity securities of Canadian corporations that meet a defined set of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria. The strategy is managed by a research-intensive, bottom-up investment process, complemented by the use of proprietary tools.

The strategy excludes investments in businesses involved in the areas of alcohol, gambling, weapons, adult entertainment, cannabis, and tobacco, and issuers based on ESG controversies and on Sustainalytics' ESG Risk Rating. The PH&N Canadian Equity team integrates material ESG factors into its investment decisions.1


Strategy overview

  • Experienced team of sector specialists led by two portfolio managers
  • Core large cap Canadian equity portfolio, complemented by small cap stocks and dedicated gold stock management
  • Emphasis on identifying companies creating long-term value through quality growth opportunities
  • Proprietary fundamental research is the key to security selection
  • The team integrates material ESG factors into its investment decisions
  • Excludes investments in businesses involved in alcohol, gambling, weapons, adult entertainment, cannabis, and tobacco
  • Excludes investments in issuers based on ESG controversies
  • Excludes investments in issuers based on Sustainalytics' ESG Risk Rating

Our approach

Exclusion framework

The intention of the strategy is to provide long-term capital appreciation through investment primarily in equity securities of Canadian corporations that meet a defined set of ESG-related criteria.

The strategy's investment process begins by screening companies using ESG exclusion criteria that determine its investable universe. RBC Global Asset Management (RBC GAM) has partnered with Sustainalytics to implement the ESG exclusion criteria and to identify issuers for the strategy’s exclusion list.

Based on its data, Sustainalytics prepares an exclusion list of issuers. The list excludes securities of issuers that: (i) derive revenues in excess of certain revenue thresholds from alcohol, gambling, weapons, adult entertainment, cannabis, and tobacco; (ii) are involved in ESG controversies exceeding certain thresholds; or (iii) meet specific relative scoring criteria based on Sustainalytics’ ESG Risk Rating.2

Investment philosophy and style

  • Growth at a responsible price (GARP) strategy
  • Integrates material ESG factors in investment decisions

Investment process

  • Bottom-up, fundamental research is focused on the belief that high-quality businesses outperform through proven management, sustainable competitive advantages, and attractive capital allocation.
  • The team thinks in scenarios, not a specific right answer. Outcomes are inherently uncertain and the processes anticipate uncertainty and incorporate buy triggers to take advantage of volatility.

Portfolio construction

  • Through their various proprietary tools, the team ranks every company in the index on Quality, Return, and Conviction drivers.
  • Issuers that do not meet the ESG exclusion criteria are removed from investable universe. From there, approximately two-thirds of the portfolio is made up of the highest quality/conviction ideas, while the rest of the portfolio comes together from a risk management perspective to ensure that the strategy is not taking any unintended sector or style exposures.
  • As a result, the highest conviction investment ideas are expected to have the largest impact on performance, and unwanted risks are accurately measured and carefully managed.
  • The team integrates material ESG factors into investment decisions. The team engages with companies’ management and boards to better understand potential material ESG risks and opportunities, as well as the underlying processes the companies have in place to manage these risks and opportunities.

Additional information

Inception
October 2002
Primary benchmark
S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index
Vehicle
Canadian Investment Fund

Investment team

PH&N Canadian Equity team

​A collaborative, disciplined investment process focused on deep fundamental research

Connect with our team to learn more

Contact us

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Disclosure

1 The strategy may from time to time depart from its ESG exclusion lists when it is determined to be in the best interests of the strategy to do so, such as when RBC GAM has identified inaccuracies in the data, or incomplete data due to more recent developments or events, used to produce the exclusion lists. A strategy may also hold securities of issuers that are added to its ESG exclusion lists following the strategy's investment in such securities until such time the strategy can appropriately divest of such securities.
2 The Sustainalytics exclusion list is maintained by Sustainalytics, and is updated on a monthly basis.