IOI Corporation Berhad (IOI) was upgraded to ‘BBB’ from ‘BB’ for its environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance in the latest assessment by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) ESG Research LLC. The upgrade, which marked IOI’s enhanced resilience to long-term, industry ESG risks was driven by improvement in our governance practices, as well as improved transparency in executive pay practices, which appear to be well-aligned with shareholders’ interests.

For corporate governance, we fall into the average scoring range relative to our global peers which reflects a relatively low level of governance risk in most assessment areas. In addition, we have strengthened our ethics management practices and embarked on multi-stakeholder collaborations to reduce the potential adverse biodiversity impact of our palm oil operations.

The MSCI ESG Ratings measure a company's resilience to long-term ESG risks. Companies are scored on an industry-relative AAA-CCC scale across the most relevant key issues based on a company's business model.

As part of our sustainability commitment, we also made progress in other sustainability credentials including emerging as the Top 3 Leader with the highest score and the Top Mover in The State of Children’s Rights and Business 2020 Southeast Asia study conducted by Global Child Forum in January 2021. At the Carbon Disclosure Programme in February 2021, we were awarded the Most Improved Company 2020 for Hong Kong, Macau and Southeast Asia in the area of Water Security and upgraded our score from C (Awareness) to B (Management Awareness & Involvement). IOI is also a constituent of FTSE4Good Index with a rating of 3.1 in ESG.