ESG Activities and Corporate Performance of Listed Real Estate Companies

Abstract

This study examines how financial performance in real estate companies of Japan are affected by ESG activities. Today, companies are expected to engage in social issues such as CSR, SDGs, and ESG. However, such activities may incur costs and reduce profit, thereby negative evaluation can be expected. This study focuses on GRESB, the only ESG evaluation system within the real estate sector, analyzing impact of GRESB participation through companies’ financial performance. The dataset consists of 198 listed real estate companies' financial information, categorized as Real Estate/REIT in the Tokyo Stock Exchange. I conducted the PSM (Propensity Score Matching) method using a number of Directors, Audit & Supervisory Board/Committee Members as governance variables and used total market capitalization as size variables. These variables were employed as covariates. I employed GRESB participation dummies as independent variables, and financial performance such as Dividend yield, PBR and ROE as dependent. After matching, 50 companies (25 pairs) were left. I performed a t-test on these two groups. From the results of analysis, I concluded that low PBR ratioed companies participate in GRESB to attract investor interest, to improve stock price, because the PBR ratios of GRESB participating companies are low, while non-participating companies are high.