The fund will invest in companies across all sectors that target the UN SDGs, such as health and wellness, financial inclusion, sustainable infrastructure and responsible consumption and production.
Schroders, the global investment manager with £726.1bn (€846.1bn) in assets under management, has launched a new Article 9 global equity impact fund which targets companies whose products focus on solving societal and environmental challenges.
Drawing on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), the launch of the Schroder ISF Global Equity Impact strategy comes amid growing demand for public equity-focused impact strategies and aims to find firms which operate at scale and in ways that are foundational to impact outcomes yet are often underappreciated.
The fund will invest in companies across all sectors addressing key themes such as health and wellness, financial inclusion, sustainable infrastructure, and responsible consumption and production.
It is the latest addition to Schroders’ impact-driven fund range, which also includes Schroder ISF Emerging Markets Equity Impact, Schroder ISF US Smaller Companies Impact, Schroder ISF Asian Equity Impact and Schroder ISF European Innovators.
“The UN SDGs outline urgent social and environmental problems that must be addressed to ensure a sustainable and prosperous future for all. Due to the sheer magnitude of these challenges, we believe the necessary solutions cannot be achieved solely by governments and NGOs,’’ said Schroder fund managers Joanna Wald and Paul Griffin, who will jointly manage the portfolio.
They added: “The competitive dynamics and scrutiny of public markets rewards companies that can most efficiently generate solutions. Companies’ leadership in execution, agility and innovation creates solutions with the speed and scale necessary to address the UN SDGs.
Wald and Griffin said that they measure impact over time and work to improve that impact. “We believe these companies have the potential to offer strong returns to investors in line with their business activities. There is no compromise needed on performance.”
Schroders’ impact investment framework was built in close collaboration with impact investor BlueOrchard, in which it took a majority stake in 2019. Last year it received top ratings from BlueMark, a provider of independent impact verification and intelligence for the impact and sustainable investing market for its alignment with the Operating Principles for Impact Management.
