Sunsuper awards green bond mandate
Sunsuper has awarded a $150 million green bond mandate to London-based impact fixed income manager, Affirmative Investment Management (AIM).
In an announcement, the two said the mandate aimed to deliver a mainstream financial return while providing financing to generate positive environmental and social impact projects.
Sunsuper chief investment officer, Ian Patrick, said: “We believe environmental social and governance (ESG) [risk] integration is consistent with better investment outcomes, and has the ancillary benefit of contributing to a better future for our members.
“As an organisation, we have long considered the science behind climate change as settled. We recognise that from an investment perspective, a just transition to a low-carbon global economy presents both risks and opportunities,” he said.
AIM managing partner, Stephen Fitzgerald, said a pure play focus to investing, founded on deep analysis and engagement could be beneficial to both investors, in terms of financial returns, and to the broader society, in terms of environmental and social outcomes.
“We are really excited to be working with the fund to manage an active global fixed income portfolio, benchmarked against Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate, hedged into Australian dollars,” Fitzgerald said.
Recommended for you
Lonsec and SQM Research have highlighted manager selection as a crucial risk for financial advisers when it comes to private market investments, particularly due to the clear performance dispersion.
Macquarie Asset Management has indicated its desire to commit the fast-growing wealth business in Australia by divesting part of its public investment business to Japanese investment bank Nomura.
Australia’s “sophisticated” financial services industry is a magnet for offshore fund managers, according to a global firm.
The latest Morningstar asset manager survey believes ETF providers are likely to retain the market share they have gained from active managers.
