Slot machine giant Aristocrat Leisure Ltd. has invited its biggest investors, including some of the country’s top pension funds, to Sydney next week for an unprecedented event at the gaming firm: a day devoted to ESG.
The guardians of the country’s retirement savings, among the top backers of the industry, will likely be watching keenly. Some funds concede that gambling, with its proven links to social harms, may become a tougher investment to justify to the millions of Australian workers that put their money in the country’s A$3.5 trillion ($2.3 trillion) pensions system.
“Society’s attitudes to what constitutes harm and the understanding of, let’s call it the true financial effects of harm, do change through time,” Ian Patrick, chief investment officer of the A$260 billion Australian Retirement Trust, said in an interview, without discussing any companies. “I think you’d expect investments to shift with that.”
