Recently, Morgan Stanley Capital International (referred to as "MSCI" in Chinese and "MSCI" in English), an international authoritative index institution, released the 2023 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) rating results. Yuexiu Transportation Infrastructure Co., LTD. (" Yuexiu Transportation ") has upgraded its MSCI rating for 2023 to "BBB", which is the highest rating in the national transportation infrastructure industry. MSCI is one of the world's most authoritative ESG index rating agencies, and its rating results have become the mainstream investment reference basis in the capital market. MSCI believes that Yuexiu Transportation's performance in health and safety as well as community relationship management has significantly improved compared to last year. Its performance is higher than the global average of its peers and it remains at the forefront of the industry.
In 2023, Yuexiu Transportation disclosed its climate-related work plans and achievements for the first time in accordance with the climate-related information disclosure suggestions, covering four major areas: governance, strategy, risk management, and indicators and goals. Based on the ESG rating management improvement suggestions derived from the 2022 rating gap analysis, we will continue to implement measures to enhance enterprise management, optimize disclosure, and strengthen ESG rating management. In 2023, the MSCI score was raised from 4.7 in 2022 to 5.0. Among them, the community relations score ranked third among 59 global infrastructure peers and first among Chinese infrastructure peers.
Under the leadership of the management of Yuexiu Transportation, the ESG work in 2023 achieved outstanding performance, and the sustainable development capabilities of Yuexiu Transportation were recognized by MSCI.
Regarding MSCI ESG ratings
MSCI is the full name of Morgan Stanley Capital International. The relevant research began in 1988, and the first ESG index - the MSCI KLD 400 Index was released in 1990. Since 1999, MSCI has started to rate companies' ESG ratings from the perspective of substantive risk assessment in the ESG industry. Time series data have been available since 2007. The rating targets are all listed companies included in the MSCI index.
The MSCI ESG Research Center collaborates with over 1,400 institutional investors worldwide and enjoys strong professionalism and wide industry recognition. The MSCI ESG ratings are currently among the most accepted and influential ESG rating results in the global market. As of now, MSCI has covered over 955,250 stocks and fixed-income securities from more than 10,000 companies worldwide. 92% of the top 50 asset management companies and over 1,300 institutions use MSCI ESG ratings for investment decisions.
Other external ESG evaluations
In 2023, the ESG work of Yuexiu Transportation was widely recognized by multiple external institutions. The ESG risk assessment score of Sustainalytics has further decreased and remains at a "low risk" level, ranking among the top 34% in the industry. It was awarded the "Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance Award 2023- Outstanding Transport Infrastructure Enterprise" by Ming Pao. It was successfully included in the top 30 list of the ESG Development Index of state-owned enterprises in the Greater Bay Area (ranking 11th), and its management practice "The Way of Development: Technological Innovation to Build a Green Transportation System" also became one of the outstanding cases in the "Blue Book of Social Value of State-owned Enterprises in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and ESG Blue Book of Holding Listed Companies (2023)".
In the future, Yuexiu Transportation will continue to uphold the concept of sustainable development, achieving economic value while taking into account social and environmental values, and promoting the high-quality development of the enterprise.