Response from ODIN Fund Management to the Fair Action report “Broke in Bangladesh”
Responsibility and sustainability are integral parts in our way of investing. We spend both time and resources (externally and internally) to gather information to ensure that we have a solid basis to properly evaluate companies. ESG-factors are thus integrated in our investment process. We were shareholders in H&M from 2014 till 2018. H&M operate in an industry where supply chain challenges are one of the most significant risk factors from an ESG-perspective. When we chose to invest in H&M, we considered the company to have the focus and the resources needed to face these challenges. With its size the company had the possibility to positively influence the industry. We had several meetings with H&M in the period invested. At these meetings sustainability and responsibility, where fair living wage is included, were discussed. While H&M has shown progress, we agree that the progress has been too slow.