Sustainability Policies and Practices for Corporate Governance in Latin America

Annex B. Methodology for data collection and classification

Corporate sustainability data

This firm‑level dataset contains records for up to 13 800 listed companies with a total of USD 113 trillion market capitalisation listed on 83 markets in 2021, although the coverage may vary depending on the selected issue. The main data sources, Refinitiv and Bloomberg, were controlled against each other to ensure consistency. The disclosed data contains information on sustainability reporting and the used accounting standards, the external assurance of sustainability reporting, the presence of a sustainability committee reporting directly to the board, GHG emission reduction targets, and executive remuneration linked to sustainability factors and targets. Sustainability disclosure by trusts, funds or special purpose acquisition companies was excluded from the sample under analysis.

Green, Social and Sustainability (GSS) corporate bonds data

Green, social and sustainability (GSS) bonds are mainly collected from Refinitiv and Bloomberg. This dataset contains deal‑level information of more than 6 500 bonds issued by both financial and non‑financial companies from 71 countries since 2013. This dataset provides a detailed set of information for each GSS bond issue, including the identity, nationality and industry of the issuer; the type, interest rate structure, maturity date and rating category of the bond, the amount of and use of proceeds obtained from the issue. The issuance amounts, initially collected in USD, were adjusted by 2022 US Consumer Price Index (CPI). The different data sources are checked against each other to ensure consistency and the bonds are classified into four different categories, namely green bonds, social bonds, sustainability bonds and sustainability‑linked bonds. GSS bonds issued by agencies, governments, treasuries, central banks, universities, or other supra-national entities are excluded from this analysis.

Ownership data

The main source of information is the FactSet Ownership database. This dataset covers companies with a market capitalisation of more than USD 50 million and accounts for all positions equal to or larger than 0.1% of the issued shares. Data are collected as of end of 2021 in current USD, thus no currency nor inflation adjustment is needed. The data are complemented and verified using Refinitiv and Bloomberg. Market information for each company is collected from Refinitiv. The dataset includes the records of owners for 29 453 companies listed on 92 markets covering 98% of the world market capitalisation. For each of the countries/regions presented, the information corresponds to all listed companies in those countries/regions with available information.

The information for all the owners reported as of the end of 2021 is collected for each company. Some companies have up to 5 000 records in their list of owners. Each record contains the name of the institution, the percentage of outstanding shares owned, the investor type classification, the origin country of the investor, the ultimate parent name, among other things.

The table below presents the five categories of owners defined and used in this report. Different types of investors are grouped into these five categories of owners. In many cases, when the ultimate owner is identified as a Government, a Province or a City and the direct owner was not identified as such, ownership records are reclassified as public sector. For example, public pension funds that are regulated under public sector law are classified as government, and sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are also included in that same category.

Table B.1. Categories of owners defined and used in the report

Investor category	Categories of owners
	Investor type
Private corporations and holding companies	Business Association	Operating Division
	Employee Stock Ownership Plan	Private Company
	Holding Company	Public Company
	Joint Venture	Subsidiary
	Non-profit organisation
Public sector	Government	Regional Governments
	Sovereign Wealth Manager	Public Pension Funds
Strategic individuals and family members	Individual (Strategic Owners)	Family Office
Institutional investors	Bank Investment Division	Mutual Fund Manager
	Broker	Other
	College/University	Pension Fund
	Foundation/Endowment Manager	Pension Fund Manager
	Fund of Funds Manager	Private Banking/Wealth Management
	Fund of Hedge Funds Manager	Private Equity Fund/Alternative Inv.
	Hedge Fund	Real Estate Manager
	Hedge Fund Manager	Research Firm
	Insurance Company	Stock Borrowing/Lending
	Investment Adviser	Trust/Trustee
	Market Maker	Umbrella Fund
	Mutual Fund-Closed End	Venture Capital/Private Equity
Other free‑float including retail investors	Shares in the hands of investors that are not required to disclose their holdings. It includes the direct holdings of retail investors who are not required to disclose their ownership and institutional investors that did not exceed the required thresholds for public disclosure of their holdings.