This Sub-Fund aims to deliver performance by investing in bonds issued primarily by emerging market (EM) sovereign and supranational issuers in a manner consistent with the principles of environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) focused investing.
The Sub-Fund promotes environmental (E) and social (S) characteristics but does not have as its objective sustainable investment. However, it will have a minimum proportion of 5% of sustainable investments.
These Sustainable Investments contribute to a range of environmental and / or social objectives which may include but are not limited to, alternative and renewable energy, energy efficiency, pollution prevention or mitigation, reuse and recycling, health, nutrition, sanitation and education and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (“Environmental and Social Objectives”).
To ensure that the Sustainable Investments that this Sub-Fund intends to make do no cause significant harm, the Investment Manager assesses whether the issuers of these bonds do no harm through an internally designed methodology which covers principal adverse impact, controversies and overall ESG/governance quality.
This Sub-Fund aims to have better environmental and social characteristics than the Emerging Market (EM) sovereign bond universe. For that purpose, the Investment Manager use the JP Morgan JESG scores which assesses the ESG quality of each issuer based on a number of E and S quantitative indicators.
The E and S charactersitics include:
- Enhancing exposure to investments that are deemed to have associated positive externalities, compared to the Sub-Fund’s ESG Reporting Benchmark while limiting investments that are deemed to have associated negative externalities
- Exclude issuers with a JESG score below 20 and comply with the Investment Manager’s exclusion criteria applicable to Article 8 funds as described in UBP’s Responsible Investment Policy
This Sub-Fund investment strategy relies on ESG, credit and macroeconomic assessments in order to combine a financial risk-adjusted performance in line or above that of the EM sovereign bond market over the investment horizon.
The investment process includes ESG analysis which combines internal and external research conducted by a variety of ESG data providers including, but not limited to, JP Morgan, MSCI ESG Research, RepRisk as well as recognized organizations like the World Bank. In particular, the Investment Manager has developed a proprietary ESG sovereign integration strategy, which aims to identify how non-economic factors impact asset performance, focusing on a country's ESG credentials and its ability to handle sustainability risks and opportunities.
Negative screening leads to the exclusion of issuers with the worst ESG performance.
The Investment Manager takes into consideration and seeks to minimize the following potential principal adverse impacts of its investments: 1) GHG intensity of investee companies 2) Companies in breach of UN Global Compact principles and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises 3) Companies exposed to Controversial Weapons and 4) Investee countries subject to social violations.
ESG analysis, combining both internal and external ESG research, covers at least 80% of the Sub-Fund's invested portfolio.
This Sub-Fund will invest at least 51% of its assets in securities issued by governments and government agencies of emerging markets within the J.P. Morgan ESG EMBI Diversified Index. A minimum of 51% of the Sub-Fund’s net assests invested will be aligned with the environmental and social characteristics of the fund, including at least 5% invested in a mix of environmentally and/or socially sustainable investments, depending on investment opportunities.
The binding criteria used to attain each of the environmental and/or social characteristics promoted by the Sub-Fund are integrated in control systems, to ensure pre- and post trade checks. Compliance is monitored by the Risk department on an ongoing basis.
The Investment Manager may use data reported directly by issuers, sourced from recognised organisations like the World Bank or from third-party data providers such as JP Morgan, MSCI ESG Research or Sustainalytics. The service and data quality provided by third-party ESG data providers are reviewed regularly.
Depending on the metric considered, some data may be estimated by data providers. Although the Investment Manager applies a thorough selection process of third-party providers, their processes and proprietary ESG methodology may be flawed. As a result, there is a risk of incorrectly assessing an issuer, resulting in an inappropriate capture of ESG risks and potential incorrect inclusion or exclusion in the product. This is expected to have limited impact on the overall environmental and/or social characteristics promoted by the product.
The investment due diligence process ensures that the investment decisions comply with the objectives and the investment strategy of the Sub-Fund. The consideration of sustainability-related risks is integrated into the investment decision-making process to ensure better-informed investment decisions as well as awareness of the risk exposure. The first level of due diligence is conducted by the Investment Manager, while the second level is conducted by the Risk department.
Engagement with investee issuers may occur. It can be conducted collaboratively as well as, on an ad-hoc basis, directly by the Investment Manager, as part of its overall ESG assessment.
No reference benchmark has been designated for the purpose of attaining the environmental or social characteristics promoted by this Sub-Fund.
For more information, please see the fund’s Sustainability-related disclosures.
