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    Schullström Drops in

    Stockholm (NordSIP) – At the beginning of February, Stockholm-based COIN Investment Consulting Group announced that Ylva Schullström had joined the team as Senior Consultant focused on Sustainable Investments. We took this opportunity to catch up with Schullström and find out more about her new responsibilities.

    “The delivery of professional financial advice with a customer focus enhanced by sustainability and asset management has been a common thread across the diverse array of positions I have held over the past ten years,” Schullström starts. Indeed, led by an intense curiosity, she has explored various roles at large Nordic and international institutions, including institutional equity sales at Danske Bank, Credit Agricole and Metzler Nordic, as well as co-founder and financial advisor for micro caps at Nertus Corporate Finance. Lately, she provided wealth advisory to private and smaller institutional clients at Nordea, where she also worked with philanthropy, sustainability and CSR. Last year, her interest in sustainable investing drew her to completing the online Sustainable Leadership Management course at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). She is now further solidifying her expertise by taking a class on sustainable forestry.

    COIN specializes in asset management procurement in the Nordics, with a particular focus and expertise on sustainability and alternative investments. Thanks to the firm’s asset pooling service, smaller institutional clients can achieve reduced management costs and access opportunities that are usually closed to smaller institutions.

    “Having been active in finance for over 20 years, it is liberating to be able to meet capital owners and offer completely independent advice at COIN Investment Consulting Group,” Schullström starts. “We are not an asset manager, which means that we can always focus on the customer’s best interests and offer our services without conflicts of interest.”

    “Given my background, the company’s market position and our shared values and growth and ambition goals, COIN is the perfect place for me today. COIN can provide added value to customers focusing on sustainable investments. Sustainability is an integral part of effective investment portfolio management,” she adds.

    “Since clients’ objectives can differ widely, asset management goals can vary, and they need tailor-made solutions,” Schullström says. “Asset owners who want to keep track of all the risks in their portfolio and take advantage of new investment opportunities also need to increase their awareness of sustainability factors relevant to asset management.”

    As a senior consultant at COIN, Schullström is responsible for providing support in several areas, including strategy review, procurement of equity / fixed income management and alternative asset classes, reducing management costs, and reporting via a self-developed reporting system.

    “Among other services, in sustainable investments, we provide independent sustainability reports on existing investment portfolios, where we review fund holdings, including checking whether the asset manager follows the customer’s investment directive in the area of ​​sustainability,” Schullström explains.

    “COIN’s role is to guide customers forward, based on their current situation so that they can meet different regulatory requirements as well as feel confident with their sustainability strategy. It’s about helping our customers find the level of commitment and focus that they are comfortable with,” Schullström adds.

    “My role is to understand the common sustainability and responsible investment needs of capital owners and find out if there are any specific challenges they have,” she explains. “The range of investments that may qualify as ‘sustainable’ is already large today and will only increase. The options will be almost endless. It is a jungle of products, concepts and regulations, and many asset owners do not have the time to go through this increasingly complex area. However, their stakeholders increasingly demand to see how they integrate sustainability in their asset management.”

    Schullström sees many options for COIN to help out. “If a customer wants to work with impact investments in their alternative investment allocation, we can probe the range of possible investments on their behalf. Many customers need to provide stakeholders with measurable results on the sustainability performance of their portfolio, such as their carbon footprint. Some clients can also be public entities facing the prospect of in-depth audits and scrutiny about their investment portfolio’s sustainability. In those situations, we can help them carry out different types of screening to ensure that their portfolio is not exposed to controversies to mitigate reputational risks,” she adds.

    “It is a privilege to be able to advise asset owners on efficient and sustainable asset management. The more people make conscious choices and strive to make a positive impact through their investments, the greater the probability that, among other things, the financial community can effectively contribute to handling the climate crisis. This is an important responsibility,” Schullström concludes.

     

    Image courtesy of Ylva Schullström

    Aline Reichenberg Gustafsson, CFA
    Aline Reichenberg Gustafsson, CFA
    Aline Reichenberg Gustafsson, CFA is Editor-in-Chief for NordSIP and Managing Director for Big Green Tree Media. She has 18 years of experience in the asset management industry in Stockholm, London and Geneva, including as a long/short equity hedge fund portfolio manager, and buy-side analyst, but also as CFO and COO in several asset management firms. Aline holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a License in Economic Sciences from the University of Geneva.

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