Brandes Investment Partners

Rating Overview

Brandes Investment Partners is Medium Risk.

Brandes Investment Partners is Medium Risk. The company often yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders. The company elevates merit, excellence, and integrity ahead of race and identity-based policies. The company occasionally embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues at times. This approach fails to safeguard free exercise, free speech, and free enterprise.

Rating Criteria

Corporate Weaponization Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Cancellations	Medium Risk
Discriminatory Philanthropy	Lower Risk
Employment Protection	Lower Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	Medium Risk
Funding	Medium Risk
Political Actions	No Data

Corporate Governance and Public Policy ⓘ

Rating Criteria Detail

Criteria Risk Level Rationale

Corporate Weaponization

Criteria:

Has canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Brandes Investment is a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment, incorporating ESG issues into investment analysis, decision-making, and other business practices (1)(2). However, the company has not publicly canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors based on political views or religious beliefs (3).

Criteria:

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

Brandes Investment Partners does not discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or beliefs. The company’s charitable giving focus areas are “social and environmental causes in communities where we have offices” (1).

Criteria:

Employment policies fail to protect against viewpoint or other discrimination and/or are ideological in nature.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

Brandes Investment Partners protects its employees against viewpoint discrimination (1).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

Uses corporate reputation to support causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Brandes Investment Partners supports ESG within its business practices. From its Price and Value Report: “research, investment process and allocation of client capital have always included the evaluation and integration of material ESG issues” (1). The company supports DEI within its business practices. From its Careers webpage: “Brandes is committed to promoting inclusion and diversity” (2).

Criteria:

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Brandes Investment Partners is a member of LGBT Great, a global business network that seeks to advance LGBTQ+ inclusion across the corporate sector by embedding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion into workplace strategies. The organization accomplishes this by providing LGBTQ+ policy guidance and review, assessing corporate LGBTQ+ workplace practices through its Inclusion Index Benchmarking Tool (iiBT), supporting the development of DEI goals and objectives within the workplace, providing LGBTQ+ awareness training, including ESG investing through an LGBTQ+ inclusion lens, and connecting members to an LGBTQ+ focused talent and recruitment pipeline Otherwise, there are no publicly known cases of the company using corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies

Criteria:

Uses corporate political actions and/or financial contributions for ideological, non-business purposes.

Risk Level:

N/A

Rationale:

Brandes Investment Partners does not operate a PAC or engage in lobbying at this time (1)(2)(3).