Social value looks to capture and quantify the additional positive value that a business creates. Historically, quantifying social value in financial terms has been difficult to do, but increased visibility of inequality and unrest has been a key factor in driving capital towards socially impactful and community-focused investment strategies. The growing awareness has meant a greater need for this type of assessment.

In 2022, the Investment Manager conducted an exercise to quantify the social value attributable to the Company’s portfolio using the themes, outcomes, and measures (“TOMs”) framework managed by the Social Value Portal. This methodology ties specific measures to social outcomes, all of which have an associated monetary value, allowing for the calculation in sterling terms.

Each monetary value is broken down and apportioned into three areas: benefit to individuals, benefit to the community and benefit to the government.

The Investment Manager identified the commonalities between the TOMs framework and the metrics the Company reports, resulting in the calculation of the portfolio’s total social value. The results are set out in the table on this page.

As the integration of sustainability and ESG factors into investment and asset management processes continues to advance, social value potential may be included as a contributing factor to investment decision-making to inform where capital can be best directed.