Summary
This Sub-Fund has sustainable investments as its objective.
This Sub-Fund is actively managed and denominated in EUR. It invests at least 85% of its net assets in global Green Bonds or sustainability bonds that contribute to environmental objectives, issued by worldwide corporates, mainly mid and large cap issuers, and with an average expected maturity between 1 and 10 years.
The dominant sustainable investment objective of this Sub-Fund is climate change mitigation. This does not prevent this Sub-Fund from allocating to investments with other environmental objectives.
To ensure that the sustainable investments this Sub-Fund intends to make not cause significant harm, this Sub-Fund will i) at the security level: invest in Green Bonds (green bonds and sustainability bonds with environmental objectives) where the proceeds is targeted to environmental purposes as defined in the prospectus and ii) at the issuer level: assess whether companies do no significant harm through an internal methodology which covers principal adverse impact indicators, SDG misalignment, controversies, good governance and the ESG opinion of the Investment Manager on those companies.
A minimum of 50% of this Sub-Fund’s bond allocation will be invested in issuers with an ESG rating equal or superior to BBB for developed markets issuers and equal or superior to BB for non-developed market issuers. In the absence of a rating from MSCI, an internal rating may be assigned by the Investment Manager.
The ESG approach starts with exclusions, in line with the Investment Manager’s Responsible Investment Policy. This is followed by ESG Integration: the issuer selection derives from the analysis of both environmental, social and governance (extra-financial) material factors and financial factors. Finally, the Investment Manager selects Green and Sustainability Bonds with an environmental objective and compliant with the Green Bond Principles (or equivalent) of the ICMA (International Capital Market Association).
The good governance practices are assessed alongside the environmental and social characteristics in the 2nd pillar of the ESG process described above.
The binding criteria used to attain the sustainable investment objective 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 or sourced from third-party data providers such as 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 companies may occur. It can be conducted collaboratively as well as directly by the Investment Manager.
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.
