Methodology

Research Methodology

ASR™ Categories

The ASR™ research methodology uses a proprietary set of 100 indicators covering all areas of sustainability. These indicators are grouped into four ASR™ categories, General, Environmental, Social and Governance. The indicators are carefully selected to represent the most realistic assessment of achievable best sustainability practices for Asian companies. In theory, any company could aspire to and achieve a 100 percent rating on ASR™ within a few years of monitoring and reporting on these fundamental ESG issues.

Example indicators across the four ASR™ categories:

General | Is there a defined list of stakeholders?

Environment | Does the company provide water consumption data?

Social | Does the company report on specific hours/budget for staff training?

Governance | Is there an anti-corruption/bribery policy?

1. All companies are scored by responsible investment analysts based in Singapore with the relevant language skills and local understanding of the markets in which the companies operate.

2. Assessments are solely based on publicly available information such as websites and regulatory filings. It is best practice for companies to provide timely sustainability data, hence only information that is less than 18 months old is analysed.

3. The company will only earn a point if there is information that meets the investor’s criteria. No half marks are awarded.

4.Listed subsidiaries are treated as separate investable entities and are scored separately from the holding company. The subsidiary can only earn points if the disclosed sustainability information is directly related to its operations.

In 2011, 750 companies from ten countries were scored using the ASR™ methodology. These companies were selected based on the size of their free float market capitalisation. To ensure a representative cross section of companies in each country, some companies were included based on their size within their respective countries.