Firms miss out on $13trn as half of disabled consumers face barriers to buying

More than 50% of disabled consumers have encountered barriers to content, products, and physical and online retail services, according to research by The Valuable 500, the world’s biggest CEO collective. The results, which were gathered from insights from over 1,000 disabled consumers and thought leaders in 15 countries across six continents, also found only 2% … Read more

Rathbones recruits for global sustainable bond team

Rathbones has appointed Vanguard’s Christie Goncalves as assistant portfolio manager, to work under Bryn Jones on fixed income strategies. Goncalves (pictured) spent the past eight years at Vanguard working on global corporate ESG funds and ETFs, and as a senior trader with an emphasis in euro and sterling rates and credit. She also spent over … Read more

Why the Securities and Exchange Board of India should be thinking bigger on sustainable issues

I recently had an engaging meeting with one of the world’s largest general partner investors active in India. We ended up debating whether ESG should be much more than a checkbox exercise and a critical part of companies’ value creation, backed up by corresponding capital expenditure. As a dedicated ESG adviser, my position will hardly … Read more

Schroders Capital launches Article 9 energy transition fund

Schroders Capital has launched a semi-liquid Article 9 fund under its Schroders Greencoat umbrella, the Schroders Capital Semi-Liquid Energy Transition fund. The fund will invest in energy generation primarily though wind farms and solar parks which are at the ‘project’ stage of their businesses. Focusing predominantly on US and European companies, the fund will also … Read more

How to build an effective stewardship programme

In amongst the flurry of end of year activity there contained an interesting paper from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Released in November ahead of the Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR), its multi-firm review into how authorised fund managers are embedding the guiding principles in ESG and sustainable investment funds contained useful pointers that firms would … Read more

Stewardship Insights: Scrutiny on asset managers’ engagement is evolving

In this new series, ESG Clarity takes a deep dive into an investment firm’s stewardship activities, discovering their key focuses and processes, and what’s in their engagement toolkit. Here, Yo Takatsuki, global head of investment stewardship at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, discusses the Golden Age of Electrification and how scrutiny on asset managers’ engagement is evolving. Click … Read more

Asian nuclear plans opens up supply chain investment opportunities 

Asia is experiencing a surge in nuclear power development as it seeks to secure its energy supply and transition away from fossil fuels, opening up opportunities for investors, according to research by Barclays. The region is developing 60% of the under-construction global nuclear capacity, creating medium-term opportunities in the supply chain/capital goods companies supporting the … Read more

Aegon AM rebrands high yield bond fund to focus on climate transition

Aegon Asset Management has repositioned its £52m Aegon Short Dated High Yield Global Bond fund to focus on its climate transition investment criteria. The fund has been renamed the Global Short Dated High Yield Climate Transition Fund to represent its new climate transition criteria, and will be categorised as Article 8 under the EU’s Sustainable … Read more