The Cameron Hume Global Fixed Income ESG fund will invest in a portfolio of bonds with higher average ESG ratings than their respective sectors.
The actively-managed fund will hold up to 400 fixed income securities from issuers who can demonstrate that ESG risks are appropriately managed and will benchmark against the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Index.
Guy Cameron, co-founder and chief investment officer at Cameron Hume (pictured), said that while ESG strategies were now more established in equity investing, he believed that investors were seeking to incorporate ESG metrics in their fixed income allocations as well.
“This actively-managed fund is designed to be part of a core allocation to global fixed income but will favour bonds issued by corporates with superior ESG ratings,” he said in a media statement.
“It is a returns-based rather than a values based approach that offers asset owners the opportunity to make an immediate improvement in the management of ESG exposure for their fixed income allocation.”
Cameron explained that the fund will report ESG exposures “transparently” using MSCI’s ESG ratings and opt for instruments from issuers assessed by Cameron Hume to manage ESG exposures better than their peers, with an overlay of global active positions in rates, currency, inflation and credit markets.
The fund will exclude issuers involved in the production of controversial weapons or countries that are subject to UN, European Union or United States sanctions.
Cameron Hume became a signatory to the UN PRI in 2015.
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