Velox launches ViA – A proprietary ESG application

BP’s oil spill, Volkswagen’s emissions scandal, Valeant’s accounting scandal - with the rise in globalisation, transparency and social media’s outreach, investors are punishing companies for risks outside of the income statement and balance sheet.

Today, successful investing requires navigating the portfolio through a multitude of additional (or previously neglected) risks. Portfolio managers needs to quickly identify, understand and mitigate these risks from their portfolios. New technologies, data and analytics need to be embraced to help manage the wide array of new risks in portfolio holdings. In March, after extensive beta testing, Velox launched a new proprietary application, ViA (Velox Integration App), to help its team quickly identify and understand the potential risks in any company within the Fund’s investment universe. Developed using Bloomberg’s new Quant environment, with market leading ESG data and housed within Bloomberg launchpad, ViA’s goal is to provide the most relevant information in the most efficient way - complementing Velox’s signal driven investment strategy. Within seconds of launching the application the team can access a company’s overall ESG risk level, its performance on material ESG metrics compared to its peers, and the key areas for concern.

“When I am trading, I need to distinguish between the relevant information and the noise for 2000+ securities. ViA does a great job of making me conscious of the ESG risks that I need to pay attention to, hiding away the noise.” – Dimitri Kern, Partner