Sustainability at BB Biotech AG’s portfolio level

The Investment Management Team of BB Biotech and member of the executive management board at Bellevue Asset Management AG comments as follows:

Our investment process fully implements Bellevue Asset Management’s formal ESG investment guidelines and therewith all BB Biotech investments are systematically reviewed for sustainability risks and breaches of elementary human rights (as defined, for example, by UN Global Compact principles). Besides upholding strict exclusion criteria – such as very severe controversies that violate universal norms regarding the environment, human rights or good corporate governance – environmental, social and governance factors are integrated into the fundamental analysis of every company through an ESG integration process in which the associated financial risks or opportunities are evaluated with respect to future share price development. ESG ratings compiled by the global leading ESG research provider MSCI ESG Research are referenced in this process, all the while exercising the necessary prudence and, in some cases, questioning the ESG score.

Responsible Investing

MSCI ESG Rating distribution (portfolio)

Sustainability at BB Biotech AG’s portfolio level

Core portfolio positions such as Ionis Pharmaceutical, Argenx and Neurocrine Biosciences managed to improve their MSCI ESG rating, which led to an overall ESG rating increase of the BB Biotech portfolio from BB to BBB. Additionally, MSCI ESG Research initiated coverage for the new position Biohaven at AA (ESG leader).

Carbon intensity is measured at the portfolio level at least on a quarterly basis. With a carbon risk of 27.9 tons of CO₂ per million USD revenues BB Biotech’s overall carbon intensity remains at the low end and virtually unchanged versus the previous year (28.3 tons). For a low carbon industry such as biotechnology, carbon reduction is not the predominant objective with regards to long-term sustainability goals, which is also reflected in the MSCI ESG rating for the biotechnology sector where the weights for the individual categories are distributed as follows: Environment (10%), Social (55%), Governance (35%).

CO₂-intensity (T CO₂E/USD mn Revenue)

Stewardship through engagement and active voting

a) Engagement

Our stewardship duties encompass an active and constructive dialogue with our portfolio companies on environmental, social and governance issues. In case of indications of substantial controversies in the area of ESG, these are raised constructively within the framework of the corporate dialogue and progress (e.g. strategy and process adjustments, improvement of ESG rating) is documented over time. Engagement activities must also be placed in the context of materiality and proportionality. Engagement activities can take place to varying degrees depending on the size of the investment strategies involved, the capitalization of the company, the stage of development of the company, and other factors. Accordingly, in addition to our regular interactions with company executives and other stakeholders, we initiated three formal ESG engagements in 2023, one of which concerns board tenure and compensation («G«) and other address issues around human capital(«S»), access to healthcare («S») and toxic emission and waste («E»).

b) Proxy voting

The second stewardship element concerns our actively exercising our voting rights at AGM’s through proxy voting. In order to extract long-term investor value added through active portfolio management we keep a constant dialogue also on sustainability matters with companies senior management which is eventually reflected in our voting decisions. Bellevue Asset Management’s and BB Biotech AG’s Board of Directors take our voting obligations very seriously and respective structures are in place to ensure that we vote in all shareholder meetings.

Material voting items on the AGM agenda such as board composition, compensation or incentive schemes are evaluated on a case-by-case-basis, supported by research data of Institutional Shareholder Services group (ISS). The Investment Management Team receives voting recommendations and research material from ISS. ISS brings more than 30 years of experience and global resources to serve approximately 1 500 institutional clients globally. ISS makes sure to maintain market leading stewardship practices. Should we vote against a proposed agenda item, we would usually have a prior discussion and elaboration of our rationale and understanding with members of the company management or the Board of Directors.

During 2023 we voted at 30 votable meetings covering 239 resolutions (vs. 33 votable meetings and 236 resolutions in 2022). In 202 cases we thereby voted in line with management recommendations (vs. 173 votes in 2022) and for 37 resolutions voted against management recommendation (vs. 63 votes in 2022).

Proportion of ESG investments

Sustainable investing constantly evolves on the back of methodological progress, improving corporate ESG reporting and fast moving regulatory requirements. In 2022, EU SFDR 2019/2088 Regulatory Product Disclosures (Art. 10)/Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1253 to MiFID II – Sustainability Preferences (Art. 9) introduced frameworks to measure the degree of sustainability of an investment. Thereby, EU SFDR addresses the concepts of «Investments with sustainable characteristics» as well as the concept of «Sustainable investments». While both concepts share similarities, Art. 2 No. 17 of the Disclosure Regulation 2088/2019 defines a «Sustainable investment» as an investment in an economic activity that contributes to the achievement of an environmental and/or a social objective whereas «investments with sustainable characteristics» exhibit certain ESG qualities (such as e.g. minimum ESG rating, compliance with norm and/or values-based exclusions etc.) but need not necessarily contribute to an environmental or social objective.

a) Share of investments with sustainable characteristics

In accordance with EU SFDR 2019/2088, Bellevue Asset Management introduced the following set of ESG criteria that must be met by a minimum portfolio proportion of 50% for BB Biotech:

• Compliance with global norms – i.e. no severe violations against standards and principles of the UN Global Compact, the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, and Conventions 1 and 2 of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
• Investments in ethically or morally controversial business areas are limited by considering predefined revenue thresholds (in practice not relevant for the biotech industry, those thresholds are nevertheless formally monitored).
• Minimum ESG Rating of BB or higher to assure adequate level of «Good governance» on E, S and G
• Stewardship through constructive corporate dialogue (engagement) and the exercise of voting rights (proxy voting)

In principle, we aim to invest all assets of BB Biotech in investments with «Sustainable characteristics» but there is not always a sufficient amount of ESG-data available in any market cap segment, particularly in the field of small and mid-cap companies. Additionally, some companies may not have an ESG rating yet or the current rating does not correspond with our view on the most relevant sustainability aspects.

b) Share of sustainable investments

The concept of «Sustainable investments» imposes more stringent restrictions on above ESG characteristics by introducing a positive contribution to an environmental and/or a social objective while do not significant harm any of these objectives («DNSH»). Furthermore, the invested portfolio companies must apply practices of good corporate governance. For an investment to qualify as a «sustainable investment», the Investment Manager applies the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These sustainable development goals are general, universal goals for all UN member states, which were adopted in September 2015 as the successor to the Millennium Goals. The entire world population should be able to live in a fairer, more prosperous and more peaceful society by 2030.

As already elaborated above (chapter UN SDG) ESG research provider MSCI ESG measures the degree of alignment with each of the SDGs. A positive contribution to an environmental or social objective hence requires a company to exhibit a positive alignment with at least one of the 17 UN SDGs while not affecting any other SDG negatively.

Investments are assigned to the «sustainable investment» proportion if, on the one hand, they exhibit a positive target contribution as described above and, on the other hand, they meet the criteria for «investments with sustainable characteristics» described above, which also ensures that good governance practices are applied. In addition, the most important adverse sustainability impact indicators (PAI) are explicitly or implicitly considered in this process. In the case of explicit consideration, thresholds are determined for each PAI criterion (where possible), which define the point at which a particular PAI criterion has a «material adverse impact» on a sustainability factor. If a «material adverse impact» is measured for an issuer, the issuer concerned cannot be classified as a sustainable investment, regardless of whether the issuer makes positive contributions to one of the 17 UN sustainability goals or not. The threshold values are derived empirically from empirical values and formally approved by the Bellevue ESG Working Group. In the case of implicit consideration, characteristics of the relevant PAI criteria are included in the MSCI ESG rating process and thus lead to indirect consideration by determining minimum ratings, which are used to calculate the minimum quotas.

In accordance with European MiFID regulation, a corresponding minimum proportion of sustainable investments has been defined and set at 25% for BB Biotech AG.

The overall regulatory ESG breakdown for the BB Biotech AG portfolio as at December 31, 2023 is summarized below: