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June 21, 2005
Merrill Lynch and World Resources Institute Analyze Climate Change Investment Opportunities
by William Baue
The jointly-produced report, the first such collaboration between a mainstream US investment bank
and a environmentalist nonprofit, breaks new ground by issuing stock recommendations.
SocialFunds.com --
A report connecting the dots between climate change and investment opportunities coming from the
World Resources Institute (WRI), an environmental
nongovernmental organization (NGO) with market expertise, is not surprising. What is surprising is
such a report being jointly produced
with mainstream investment bank Merrill Lynch. This is the case in a report
entitled Energy Security & Climate Change: Investing in the Clean Car Revolution, which was
released late last week.
"The report is novel in two main respects: first
off, to our knowledge, this is the first time a US investment bank has partnered with an
environmental NGO on research," said Fred Wellington, a senior financial analyst leading WRI's
capital markets research team, who contributed to the report. Interestingly, Merrill Lynch
proposed the collaboration to WRI, not vice-versa, as one might expect. "They are familiar with
our work, and we've had an ongoing dialogue for about a year-and-a-half, but this report is
not a result of us pressuring them to put it out."
"The second way it is
interesting is that other investment banks, mostly out of their European offices, have put out very
good research on climate change, but the Merrill Lynch report makes actionable stock
recommendations on the back of a global analysis of climate change policies," Mr. Wellington told
SocialFunds.com.
The first part of the report examines how energy security and climate
change are driving governmental responses in the form of regulation, outlining the Kyoto Protocol
as well as regulations in the European Union, US, Canada, Japan, China, and Australia.
"Clearly, there is a discernable trend towards regulating emissions of carbon dioxide and other
tailpipe emissions from the burning of fossil fuels," state the report authors, led by John Casesa,
Merrill Lynch global auto team coordinator. "As the causes of human-induced climate change become
more generally accepted, policies to reduce GHG emissions will continue to proliferate."
Another factor driving the auto sector to address energy security and climate change is demand
from consumers, who want more environmentally friendly cars but do not necessarily want to give up
on performance and features. This poses a technological challenge to the sector.
"This is
what we mean by the Clean Car Revolution: in a world of finite resources, higher consumer
expectations are stimulating a technology race to meet them," the report states. "For investors,
solutions to these challenges present a compelling investment opportunity."
The report
provides analysis of the seven companies the Merrill Lynch global auto team believes are best
positioned to capitalize on what it calls the clean car revolution, including BorgWarner (ticker:
BWA), Hyundai
(HYMTF.PK),
Magna International (MGA), and Toyota (TM).
"Perhaps the company in our global universe most leveraged to the trends outlined in this
report is Detroit-based BorgWarner Automotive," states the report, referring to the car components
manufacturer. "[A]lmost all of BorgWarner's key products offer the benefit of higher fuel
efficiency and/or lower emissions."
"We rate BorgWarner Neutral, as the stock's current
valuation appears to reflect the company's attractive growth prospects," the report continues.
After outlining Hyundai's research and development efforts to proactively deal with
environmental regulations, such as focusing on hybrid electric and fuel cell vehicles, diesel
engines, and fuel efficiency enhancements, the analysts give Hyundai a neutral rating.
Buy
ratings go to Magna, primarily on the strength of its metal hydroforming technology allowing for
the production of lighter, stronger, more fuel-efficient vehicles, and Toyota, the global leader in
hybrid technology according to the analysts.
The report exemplifies the very type of
climate change research by mainstream financial institutions called for by the Investor Network on
Climate Risk (INCR) in its ten-point "Call for
Action" issued at the United Nations summit last month.
"I think this report is
the first to come out since the recommendation was made," said Mr. Wellington, who co-authored a
report on climate risk investment strategies sponsored by INCR, a consortium of two dozen US and
European institutional investors with over $3 trillion in assets. "However, it is not at all a
result of the INCR conference--we at WRI have been working on this with Merrill Lynch since well
before the summit."
The report sets a high water mark for other mainstream investment
firms to best in answering INCR's call.
©
SRI World Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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