Socially Responsible Fund Family Fined For Buying Socially Irresponsible Stocks
Apparently the tree huggers at the Securities and Exchange Commission were a little annoyed when they noticed that holdings in certain Pax Word socially responsible funds didn't seem up to the touchy-feely earth-friendly marketing hoopla on Pax World's site, according to this Wall Street Journal article:
"Pax World Management Corp., one of the best-known 'socially responsible' investment firms, settled Securities and Exchange Commission charges that it violated its own rules against purchasing shares in companies involved in such businesses as defense, alcohol, tobacco and gambling.
The settlement -- in which Pax agreed to pay a $500,000 fine -- marks the first time the SEC has taken action against a purportedly socially responsible fund for failing to live up to its mission. The SEC said it uncovered the problems in a routine examination.
...The SEC alleged that, from 2001 through 2005, Pax World Growth Fund and Pax World High Yield Bond Fund failed to screen 41 stocks and bonds at all to see if they met socially responsible criteria.
Of those securities, 10 violated the funds' written restrictions. Regulators didn't reveal the securities' names, but Portsmouth, N.H.-based Pax said they included Anadarko Petroleum Corp., an oil and natural-gas exploration company; Darden Restaurants Inc., which operates a chain with its own micro-brewed beer; and Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., a defense contractor."
We've complained in the past about some socially responsible fund portfolios being anything but, and while there are certainly higher crimes and misdemeanors in the world of investing, we're glad to see the marketing fluff produced by socially responsible funds finally come under under some scrutiny. Call us old fashioned, but when Pax world says their investment philosophy include so-called sustainable investing, "the full integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into investment analysis and decision making", we don't expect to see the number one holding on 6/30/08 of the Pax World Value Fund (PAXVX) to be Whiting Petroleum Corp (WLL), a company involved in "exploration, development, exploitation, and production of oil and gas primarily in the Permian Basin, Rocky Mountains, Mid-Continent, Gulf Coast, and Michigan regions of the United States" that was busted by the EPA and had to pay a fine under the clean water act for spilling oil into an tributary of Whitetail Creek in North Dakota.
According to our portfolio manager for the Pax World Value Fund, Whiting Petroleum (WLL) is one of the better managed companies in the exploration & development space. When considering small- and mid-cap oil and natural gas producers, Pax looks at the company’s regulatory record, its acknowledgement (or lack thereof) of the impacts of climate change, and the degree of disclosure on environmental and safety topics. Whiting has a relatively clean regulatory record and provides some environmental disclosure, although we would like to see more.
According to our Sustainability Research Department, in its 2007 Form 10-K, the company acknowledges the growing consensus on climate change and the potential impact that climate change regulation could have on the company. This type of acknowledgement and discussion in a 10-K is unusual for a small drilling company in our experience, and should be encouraged. The company has an environmental, health and safety statement in its code of conduct committing it to mitigating its environmental impacts.
The environmental violation noted in your blog is likely a spill that occurred in 2005 of 42,000 gallons of saltwater that was a byproduct of oil drilling in North Dakota. Local environmental regulators stated that there was no damage, and the company flushed the area with freshwater to dilute the salt. It appears to have been an isolated incident.
Although there are no women on its board of directors, there are two women among Whiting’s eleven senior managers.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) did fine Whiting Petroleum $1,500 for a safety violation in North Dakota in 2006. The company code of conduct contains a brief statement on environment, health and safety which stresses the importance of employee safety. We would like to see more safety disclosure, especially because it operates in a high risk industry.
As a side note, among the reasons Whiting is the largest holding in the fund is price appreciation: the average cost of Whiting shares in the fund was $45.73 and the current price is $92.58.
We don’t automatically exclude companies just because they are involved in the oil industry. Instead, we compare their sustainability profile to others in the industry and we try to invest in companies that aspire to and meet higher standards. SRI firms and investors are accustomed to making such assessments, i.e., distinguishing the leaders from the laggards in a particular sector. Even in industries with as many sustainability challenges as oil, mining, or heavy manufacturing, there is usually considerable distance between the performance of the leaders and that of the laggards, and we believe that we send a much clearer signal on the direction we would like all companies to take by investing in the leaders, rather than avoiding investment in problematic sectors altogether.
No company is perfect, and there will always be companies in SRI portfolios that some will find objectionable because people care about different issues and with varying degrees of intensity. That’s a fact of life in our industry, and it will always accompany this investment approach. What we do try to do, however, is to construct portfolios that integrate higher environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards, and not incidentally, we believe such portfolios provide certain long-term advantages to investors. This isn’t “marketing fluff.” We work hard at trying to get it right each every day. The SEC settlement you reference involved the 2001-2005 time period. Anyone who is interested in a full and fair explanation rather than a mischaracterization can obtain further information via the Pax World web site (www.paxworld.com).
Joe Keefe
President and CEO
Pax World Management Corp.