ESG Investor’s weekly round-up of news about funds designed to meet sustainable investing criteria.
First Sentier Investors has launched its First Sentier Responsible Listed Infrastructure Fund, adding to its UK-domiciled fund range. The fund will invest in a diversified portfolio of global listed infrastructure stocks, that contribute towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as delivering affordable clean energy. “It is our view that infrastructure companies are leading a global shift to cleaner energy, next-generation transport networks and increasing mobile connectivity. As active investors, we aim to use our influence to push for meaningful change to improve our environment, enhance global communities as well as a company’s ability to generate sustainable long-term economic returns,” said Rebecca Myatt, Portfolio Manager of Global Listed Infrastructure Securities and manager of the fund at First Sentier Investors.
Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) has launched the L&G Hydrogen Economy UCITS ETF. The fund provides investors with exposure to a low-carbon hydrogen economy, in particular clean forms of hydrogen that are expected to play an integral role in the hydrogen economy. “Access to clean hydrogen will be key to lowering emissions in harder to abate industries where electrification alone is not enough. The commitments being made to the hydrogen economy by governments and businesses around the world are creating long-term investment opportunities with short-term catalysts. We believe this fund offers investors early access to this fast-evolving industry and allows investors the ability to control the amount of hydrogen exposure into their portfolio alongside our clean energy and battery ETFs,” said Howie Li, Head of ETFs at LGIM.
Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) has launched the Global Sustainable Credit Fund. Managed by Senior Fund Manager Rachid Semaoune, the fund has been launched with £125 million AUM and aims to exploit inefficiencies across global credit markets, diversifying across geographies, currencies, sectors and issuers. “We believe we can deliver a compelling solution to meet the requirements of investors seeking to gain exposure to global fixed income markets in a more sustainable way. We see significant opportunities to help asset owners meet their long-term goals by gaining access to the full, diverse opportunity set within global credit markets via a robust approach that puts sustainability right at the heart of portfolio construction,” said Semaoune.
GAM Investments has launched its first emerging market bond fund in a planned range of sustainable investment strategies. Developed in partnership with Austrian pension fund VBV-Pensionskasse, the fund will be managed by GAM’s Investment Director Paul McNamara. The strategy will employ a positive tilt towards sovereigns with higher ESG scores, benchmarked against the JP Morgan ESG GBI-EM GD index, and will leverage research from both Sustainalytics and RepRisk. “As ESG factors become more efficiently priced in the sovereign debt market, we believe that now is the time for a strategy that targets both a specific ESG tilt and integrates ESG factors from a risk/return perspective,” said McNamara.
Astia has launched an early-stage venture find aimed at funding companies that include women in founding or executive roles. The Astia Fund has seen investment from global organisations such as Mastercard and Toniic (global network of impact investors). “With this new fund, Astia systematically invests in under-invested, yet outperforming companies, where women are rightly in positions of power, equity and influence. Not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it creates better companies and delivers stronger returns,” said Astia CEO Sharon Vosmek.
