At the end of March, the Ethos Foundation, in association with ethosfund., published the 4th edition of its guide to Swiss companies. It profiles 23 Swiss companies which currently make up the ethosfund portfolio. Each profile summarizes the company's operations as well as its environmental and social performance. Ratings given in the form of plus or minus signs help highlight quality areas or areas where there is room for improvement.
A new feature of this edition is the inclusion of a sustainability matrix showing the positions of the various companies. The matrix gives details of the sustainability of the industry of the company in question (absolute value), together with the company’s sustainability within that industry (relative value), resulting in an overweighting or underweighting of the stock in the portfolio. Note that UBS has improved its rating compared with the last edition, moving from a single minus (-) to a single plus (+), after altering its policy in respect of clients and suppliers. Companies scoring an overall positive rating are ABB, Adecco, Bâloise, Geberit, Julius Baer, Logitech, Novartis, Phonak, Swatch Group, Swisslog, Swiss Re, Synthes Stratec, Tamedia, Tecan, UBS and Zurich Financial Services.
The company profiles are available on the www.ethosfund.ch. The guide can be obtained on request from the Ethos Foundation.
