You will soon know what are the most “just” companies in America, at least according to billionaire Paul Tudor Jones.
Jones says his venture Just Capital will release a list of the most just companies by the end of this year. Jones says his venture is in the final stage of putting together a list, which he says could be out as soon as late November.
Jones made his money as a hedge fund manger. But last year he launched a nonprofit Just Capital with the mission of identifying what companies are doing the most good at the same time as boosting profits. Jones said the first list will rank the companies that achieve that best by industry, and include what he calls the most just 25% of the largest public companies in America. He made the announcement on Tuesday at Bloomberg’s The Year Ahead 2017 conference.
Coins2Day first profiled Jones and Just Capital more than a year ago. “When we talk about moving the needle on corporate America, we’re talking about a scale that’s unrivaled anywhere else on the globe,” Jones told Coins2Day a year ago. “I actually think this has the potential to be the most impactful nonprofit that I’ve ever been involved with.”
Jones says what companies are just is based on a number of factors determined by survey of 55,000 America. But Jones says the biggest factor is whether companies treat their employees fairly and pay a living wage.
Jones says Just Capital will also launch a website that details by industry what a number of companies pay by sector by position. “I think it could get as much as one million visitors a day,” says Jones.
By February, Jones says that Just Capital is planning to launch an exchange traded fund based on the list. And Jones says that he thinks the ETF could end up being one of the biggest out there. “I have seen the returns,” says Jones. “They are very good.”
Ironically, all that predicted success of Just Capital could eat into Jones’ main business—hedge funds. Jones’ performance has been underwhelming over the past few years. Nonetheless, Tudor’s fund charges some of the highest fees in the hedge fund business. On Tuesday, while Jones said hedge funds aren’t going away, he hinted that the industries days of fat fees and ever rising assets might be a thing of the past. Last week, Hedge Fund News reported that $50 billion had flowed out of hedge funds in the first nine months of the year, the biggest outflows since the financial crisis.
“We are probably going through a change in the way people find and deliver alpha,” says Jones referring to an industry term for investment performance.
