
Pictet Global Sustainable Credit Fund
SRI Style:
ESG Plus
SDR Labelling:
Not eligible to use label
Product:
SICAV/Offshore
Fund Region:
Global
Fund Asset Type:
Fixed Interest
Launch Date:
28/06/2010
Last Amended:
May 2023
Dialshifter (
):
Fund Size:
£715.00m
(as at: 31/07/2024)
Total Screened Themed SRI Assets:
£49415.00m
Total Responsible Ownership Assets:
£174795.00m
Total Assets Under Management:
£224615.00m
ISIN:
LU1898274581, LU1898274664
Contact Us:
Objectives:
The fund has 3 main objectives:
- Achieve a positive environmental and/or social impact and ultimately invest 100% (ex-cash) into sustainable investments (impact & exclusions frameworks)
- Invest in quality: identify and select the sector leaders with strong financials and ESG credentials that are the most able to navigate throughout the market cycle (ESG & Financial scorecards)
- Outperformed the reference index by 75bps gross of fees over a market cycle.
Sustainable, Responsible
&/or ESG Overview:
Awaiting update from manager (August 2024)
Pictet - Global Sustainable Credit follows a global, bottom-up investment approach and invests primarily in BBB/BBs - bonds of high-quality issuers.
The fund aims to achieve a positive environmental and/or social impact by investing in sustainable companies
- whose significant portion of their activities are related to products and services supporting the energy transition, circular economy, energy efficiency, water quality, healthcare and social integrations; and
- issuing ESG labelled bonds.
Combined with a strict exclusion policy, the Fund opts for a “leader” approach based on both financial and extra-financial factors. Through this “leader” approach, the Fund aims at selecting issuers with strong financial sustainability and ESG credentials, therefore better able to navigate throughout the market cycle. The Fund not only aims to invest in the securities of issuers that have sound business practices with low extra financial material risks but also aims at identifying companies that thanks to their reliable and responsible business models may emerge as leaders in their sectors.
Primary fund last amended:
May 2023
Information directly from fund manager.
Fund Filters
Sustainability - General
Funds that have policies that consider (environmental and social) sustainability issues. Strategies vary but are likely to consider environmental issues like climate change, carbon emissions, biodiversity loss, resource management, environmental impacts; and social issues like equal opportunities, human rights, labour standards, diversity and adherence to internationally recognised codes. See fund information.
Find funds which substantially focus on sustainability issues
Find funds where there is a significant emphasis on (environmental and social) sustainability. Funds with a 'sustainability theme' typically place more emphasis on the area than funds with a 'sustainability policy' - meaning that it is more likely to drive investment selection. Strategies vary. See fund information for further detail.
A core element of these funds aim to encourage higher sustainability standards across business practices through responsible ownership / stewardship / engagement / voting activity
Find funds that use the UN Global Compact to inform or help direct where they can or cannot invest and will typically not invest in companies with significant breaches (low standards) - although strategies vary. (The UNGC covers a wide range of issues - search 'UNGC'). See https://unglobalcompact.org/
Environmental - General
Funds that limit or 'reduce' their exposure to carbon intensive industries (ie sectors which are major contributors to climate change. Funds vary - some funds may be 'underweight' in this area which means they may have some investment in highly carbon intensive areas. Funds of this kind may choose companies they consider to be 'best in sector' and encourage ever higher standards. Strategies vary. See fund information for further details.
Funds that aim to invest in companies with strong or market leading environmental policies and practices. Strategies vary - in particular the balance between 'financial' aspects and environmental benefits. Some may invest substantially in solutions or 'positive impact' companies - others may invest in more conventional companies providing certain environmental criteria are met. See fund information for further detail.
Nature & Biodiversity
Find funds that aim to avoid investing in companies that produce genetically modified seeds or crops. (This does not typically include avoiding companies such as supermarkets). See fund literature for further information.
Fund avoids assets / companies directly involved in genetic engineering
Climate Change & Energy
Funds that avoid investing in major coal, oil and/or gas (extraction) companies. Funds vary: some may exclude all companies that extract oil. Others may have exposure to oil extraction via more diversified energy companies. See fund literature to confirm details.
Funds that avoid companies involved in fracking and tar sands - which are widely regarded as controversial methods of oil and gas extraction. Strategies vary. See fund information for further information.
Funds that avoid companies that are involved in extracting oil from the Arctic regions. See fund literature for further details.
Funds that avoid investing in companies with coal, oil and gas reserves. See fund information for further details.
Find funds where investment in clean / renewable energy companies an other assets is central to their investment selection strategy. The proportion of the fund that is directly or indirectly invested in renewable energy varies between funds and over time. See fund information for further details.
A core element of these funds will aim to encourage the transition to lower carbon activities through responsible ownership / stewardship / engagement / voting activity
Funds that hold companies in the clean energy and renewable energy sectors (at the time research was supplied). Fund strategies vary, in particular the proportion of investment in these areas may vary significantly. Check fund literature for details.
Find funds that have policies which say they avoid or limit their investment in the nuclear industry. Strategies vary. See fund information for further detail.
The fund manager excludes companies with direct involvement in fossil fuel exploration (eg coal, oil and gas companies)
The fund manager excludes companies with indirect involvement in fossil fuel exploration. For example they would be expected to exclude banks and insurance companies that are effectively enabling new coal, oil and or gas reserves to be discovered and in due course extracted through the provision of necessary finance or services.
Social / Employment
Find funds with policies or themes that set out their approach to health and wellbeing issues. Funds of this kind typically aim to invest in companies with high standards - or encourage high standards. Themed funds are likely to have more of an emphasis on this area. Strategies vary. See fund information for further detail.
All mining companies excluded
Ethical Values Led Exclusions
Companies are excluded if they are involved in any aspect of the production chain for tobacco products, including cigarettes, vaping, e-cigarettes, chewing tobacco and cigars.
Find funds that avoid companies that manufacture products intended specifically for military use. Fund strategies vary - particularly with regard to non-strategic military products. See fund literature for fund specific details.
Find funds with a written civilian firearms exclusion policy - meaning that they will not invest in companies that make (or perhaps also sell) handguns made for non-military users.
Find funds that avoid investment in companies involved in the production of alcohol. Strategies vary; some funds allow a small proportion of profits to come from this area. See fund literature for further information.
Find funds that avoid companies with significant involvement in the gambling industry. Some funds may allow a small proportion of profits to come from this area. See fund policy for further details.
Find funds that avoid companies that derive significant income from pornography and related areas. Strategies vary. See fund details for further information.
Human Rights
Find funds that have policies in place to ensure they do not invest in companies that employ children.
Meeting Peoples' Basic Needs
Find funds that have policies or themes that set out their position on investment in the water sector and/or sanitation. Strategies vary. See fund information for further detail.
Find funds that invest in ‘social bonds’ which raise funds for the purpose of financing projects with positive social (people related) outcomes.
Fund focuses on (ie directs a significant proportion of its investment towards) green infrastructure, eg the clean energy supply chain. See fund details.
Healthcare and or medical theme or area of investment - the fund may have a single theme or many themes
Gilts & Sovereigns
Find funds that avoid investing in 'some' gilts or government bonds. Strategies vary, but this may relate to avoiding specific countries or particular reasons for bond issuance. 'Green gilts' for example would be likely to be acceptable. See fund literature for further information.
Find funds that do not invest in, or exclude, gilts and/or government bonds.
Governance & Management
Find funds that aim to avoid investing in companies with poor governance practices.(e.g. board structure, management practices etc.) Views may however vary on what counts as 'poor' practices - and funds may not immediately divest as they may prefer to work to encourage higher standards. See fund literature for further information.
Exclude companies that are subject to United Nations sanctions. See eg https://main.un.org/securitycouncil/en/content/un-sc-consolidated-list
Fund managers encourage the companies they invest in to have more diverse board structures (e.g. more women on boards)
A core element of these funds will aim to encourage higher ESG standards through responsible ownership / stewardship / engagement /voting activity
Asset Size
Find funds that invests more than half of their money into what are commonly regarded as 'large companies'. This will typically mean that the market capitalisation (or value) of the companies they hold is in excess of £5 to £10 billion.
Find funds that have SRI strategies and focus their investment stock selection on larger companies. (e.g. over circa £5-£10bn)
Targeted Positive Investments
Invests in loan stock that is exclusively used to finance environmental and social projects. See ICMA Sustainable Bond Guidelines.
Find funds that have calculated the proportion of fund asset that meet the new EU Taxonomy requirements and that they total 5-25% of assets. This will typically require adding up the proportion of each individual company's activity that is regarded as 'green' so that the fund manager can produce an overall total for the whole fund / portfolio.
Impact Methodologies
Funds that aim to help or support the delivery of positive social or environmental impacts (or societal/real world outcomes) by investing in companies they regard as beneficial to people and / or the planet. Strategies vary. See fund literature for further information.
Funds that are specifically marketed as ‘Impact investments funds' will work to deliver both financial performance and specific, measurable positive, real world social and/or environmental benefits. Strategies vary.
Find funds that specifically set out to help deliver positive environmental impacts, benefits or 'real world' outcomes.
Find funds that specifically state that they aim to deliver positive social (i.e. people related) impacts and/or outcomes.
Fund aims to deliver positive environmental and or social impacts (real world benefits) through its engagement with investee assets
50% of fund assets are regarded by the fund manager as being significantly focused on providing solutions to environmental or social challenges. Strategies vary.
How The Fund Works
Find funds that focus on finding and investing in companies with positive / beneficial attributes. This strategy can be applied in addition to exclusion criteria and engagement/stewardship activity.
Find funds where their main 'ethical approach' is to avoid companies by using negative screening criteria. Read fund literature for further information.
Aims to avoid companies that do significant harm. This originates from the EU’s sustainable finance ‘DNSH’ (do no significant harm) work, which is not necessarily used by UK investors.
Find funds that make significant use of internationally agreed 'norms' (e.g. United Nations Global Compact - UNGC - or the UN Sustainable Development Goals - SDGs) as part of their investment selection process alongside additional SRI criteria such as positive or negative stock selection policies and/or stewardship strategies.
Find funds that have an ESG strategy (which is typically focused on avoiding companies that pose environmental, social or governance related risks) with additional criteria such as positive and/or negative screens, themes and stewardship strategies.
A major focus of these funds is the careful management of environmental, social and governance (ESG) related risks - typically by avoiding or being underweight in companies seen as posing major risks in these areas (i.e. not necessarily by using themes, exclusions etc).
Find funds that have published explanations of their ethical, social and/or environmental policies online (i.e. fund decision making strategies/ buy/sell &/or asset management strategies).
Unscreened Assets & Cash
All assets held in the fund - except cash - meet the sustainability criteria published in fund documentation.
Labels & Accreditations
Finds funds classified under Article 9 of the EU’s SFDR (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Requirements). Article 9 of the SFDR applies to financial products that have sustainable investment 'objectives' - including emissions reduction objectives. (These may currently be referred to as 'impact' funds or aiming to deliver clear, specific positive outcomes.) These rules do not currently apply in the UK so fund managers may leave this field blank.
Fund Management Company Information
About The Business
Find fund management companies that are smaller or specialise in particular areas - notably, ideally ESG related. Strategies vary.
Finds fund management companies that have a published company wide stewardship, engagement and / or responsible ownership policy or strategy that covers all investments. Stewardship typically involves encouraging higher ESG standards through voting and dialogue.
Find fund management companies that actively encourage higher 'environmental, social and governance' and/or 'sustainable and responsible investment' practices across investee companies - typically where the aim is to encourage positive change that is aligned with the best interests of investors. Strategies vary. See additional information and options.
Find fund managers that vote all* the shares they own at Annual General Meetings and Extraordinary General Meetings. A commitment to voting shares is a key indicator of 'responsible share ownership' demonstrating their support for or disagreement with management policy. (*situations can legitimately, occasionally occur where voting proves impossible, but in principle all shares should be voted.)
Find fund managers that consider responsible ownership and ESG to be a key differentiator for their business.
Find fund management companies that take sustainability criteria into account when selecting and/or managing all of their property / real estate investments.
The leadership team of this asset manager have performance targets linked to environmental goals.
Find funds run by fund managers that apply Responsible ownership or 'Stewardship' policies to all or most of their investment assets. This means active involvement (e.g. voting, dialogue) with the companies they invest in across funds (not normally limited to ethical or SRI options.) Read fund literature for further information.
Find fund management companies that consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues when deciding whether or not to invest in a company for all / almost all of their funds and other assets. This is increasingly seen as part of sound risk management.
Finds organisations / fund managers that have an in-house (company wide) diversity improvement programme - meaning that they are working to ensure that within their own businesses they employ people from diverse backgrounds - often typically focused on ethnicity and/or sex.
This asset management company invests in companies which have recently listed on a stock exchange (which is important as it can help grow new businesses).
Asset management company has investments in bonds designed to meet sustainability requirements - however these assets may not be 'ringfenced' for this purpose. See fund manager website for details.
Fund management entity offers unstructured intermediary training on sustainable investment (ie for financial advisers and wealth managers)
Collaborations & Affiliations
Find fund management companies that have signed up to the UN backed 'Principles of Responsible Investment'.
Find fund management companies that have partnered with Fund EcoMarket - meaning that they are helping to improve access to information on sustainable and responsible investment by paying an annual fee to us which enables us to publish information for free. Partner funds are listed ahead of other funds and have their logos displayed.
This asset manager has signed up to the UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) program which aims to encourage more responsible banking practices – focused on environmental and social issues.
A member of the Taskforce for Nature Related Financial Disclosures group which aims to aid risk management and shift money towards nature-positive outcomes.
Fund management entity is a member of the Investment Association https://www.theia.org/
Resources
Find fund management companies that employ people to steer and support fund managers in voting shares at company AGM's and EGMs in ways that are consistent with encouraging higher ESG/sustainability standards.
Find a fund management company that directly employs specialist ESG/SRI/sustainability researchers or analysts. This allows asset managers to discuss environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities directly with companies.
Find fund management companies that makes use of expert external research companies. This can help deliver specialist expertise and means resources are pooled with other investors.
Accreditations
Find fund managers that are signatories to the FRC UK Stewardship Code, which sets out a framework for constructive investor / investee relations where fund managers are encouraged to behave like responsible, typically longer term 'company owners'.
Engagement Approach
Find fund management companies that regularly initiate or run industry wide (collaborative) investor projects aimed at raising environmental, social and governance standards amongst investee companies.
Fund manager has stewardship /responsible ownership strategy that is focused on addressing climate change with investee assets.
Asset manager has a stewardship /responsible ownership strategy that involves working with fossil fuel companies on climate change related issues. See fund manager website for details.
Asset manager has stewardship /responsible ownership strategy with involves encouraging investee asset to reduce plastic waste and pollution.
Asset manager has a stewardship / responsible ownership policy that means they are working to encourage more responsible mining practices - where environmental and social issues are properly dealt with by the companies they invest in.
The asset manager has a responsible ownership / stewardship strategy that focuses on biodiversity and nature issues relating to the assets they invest the aim of which will be to reduce harm and or deliver improvement. Strategies vary. https://tnfd.global
Asset manager has a responsible ownership / stewardship strategy which means they are working to encourage the shift to more sustainable business practices in ways that respect and are sensitive to social issues and the impact change has on people effected by the changes that are taking place. https://www.transitionpathwayinitiative.org/ https://transitiontaskforce.net/
Asset manager has responsible ownership / stewardship strategy in place which aims to address human rights issues in investee companies (and potentially their suppliers) with the aim of raising standards
Asset manager has responsible ownership / stewardship strategy in place that aims to improve labour standards for the benefit of employees in investee companies (and potentially their suppliers)
Asset management company has a stewardship strategy in place which involves working to raise diversity, equality and inclusion standards across investee assets
Fund managers have stewardship strategies in place that focus on improving governance standards across investee assets
Has a stewardship / responsible ownership strategy that encourages responsible supply chain - ie the managers will discuss environmental, social and governance issues with investee companies with the aim of raising standards
Company Wide Exclusions
Find fund management companies (not funds) that avoid investment in 'controversial weapons' across all of their funds and other investment vehicles.
Find fund management companies that avoid investment in fossil fuel companies (e.g. coal, oil and gas) across all of their funds. (and/ or other assets.)
This asset manager excludes direct investment in the coal mining industry. Managers ability to do this may depend on the geographic regions in which they invest.
Climate & Net Zero Transition
Fund management organisations that have pledged to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to ‘net zero’. Strategies vary - this area is changing rapidly.
Find fund management companies that have published a Climate Risk policy or statement that is signed / owned by their Chief Executive.
This asset management company has set a date by which they plan to achieve net zero greenhouse gas / CO2e emissions.
Find fund management companies that are working with the companies they invest in to encourage reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.
This asset management company plans to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (CO2e) emissions with the help of a scheme that will lock away an amount of carbon that is equivalent to the company’s own emissions – so that the end result is ‘net zero’. Calculations and scope vary.
Find fund management companies that are working to reduce their own (fund management company) carbon/greenhouse gas emissions.
Finds organisations / fund management companies that are in the process of working out how to make a ‘net zero commitment’ - meaning that when that is finalised they will have started the process of reducing their total greenhouse gas emissions to'zero'.
See https://sciencebasedtargets.org/
Transparency
Find fund management companies that publish a report detailing their responsible investment ownership - also known as 'Stewardship' - activity.
Find companies that publish information about their sustainable and responsible investment strategies on their company website.
Fund management companies that publish a full record of how they vote their shares at AGMs (annual general meetings) and EGMs (extraordinary general meetings). Voting strategies have an important role to play encouraging higher environmental, social and governance standards.
This asset management company has published a plan that explains how they are to become a sustainable business - without significant negative environmental or social impacts.
This asset management company has published a plan that explains how they will align to the climate change commitments made at the Paris Climate Talks, COP21.
This asset management company has published a plan that explains how they are going to achieve net zero greenhouse gas / CO2e emissions.
Sustainable, Responsible &/or ESG Policy:
We are convinced that ESG considerations can help us make better long-term investment decisions while limiting environmental negative impact (lower carbon footprint) and contributing positively to several UN Sustainable Development Goals. As such, we are committed to integrating material ESG criteria in their investment process with a view to enhance returns. Recent examples have exacerbated the reputational risk of companies having poor corporate governance and/or low environmental considerations. We believe a growing portion of corporates’ risk is driven by extra-financial factors like fraudulent accounting or bad corporate governance. Since the Great financial crisis, governments worldwide have adopted environmental rules that are tighter, covering an increasing number of sectors and coming into force faster.
Almost all companies are impacted and need to change their business models. The ones proactively adapting their business models and minimizing ESG risks will prove more resilient and emerge as leaders.
Our core beliefs and approach:
- Strong and sustainable balance sheet: We focus on issuers with a solid balance sheet that enablethem to invest in the future of their business through research and development.
- Integrated ESG criteria into fundamental analysis helps understand the “body language” of companies.
- Companies integrating ESG elements in their management are less exposed to disruptive forces andbetter equipped to navigate through the cycles.
- The investment team is best positioned to reconcile financial and extra-financial factors; therefore,team members are deeply involved in the framework and implementation of our financial and ESGscorecards.
- We built our own proprietary ESG framework from a credit investor viewpoint. Third party providers are only used as data providers
- ESG indicators should be tailor-made and customized by sectors to consider each sector specificities
- ESG in credit is not only about controversies or exclusions. It is also about selecting companies with sustainable business models
- Responsible investments include the financing of the energy transition
- Act as a responsible lender: We want to be a long-term lender to our issuers as long as the credit fundamentals and ESG scores remain within our expectations and projections. We favor a low turnoverstrategy.
- Engaging with companies: Thanks to a concentrated high conviction portfolio, we are able to build stronger relations with our issuers and actively engage with them
Process:
Our investment process follows three stages:
- Stage 1: Screening Issuers’ Financial Sustainability following a best-in-class approach
- Stage 2: Screening ESG factors with a best-in-class approach
- Stage 3: Portfolio Construction
Ahead of stage 1 of the investment process, we narrow down the investment universe by applying a set of exclusions. The exclusions can be Fund specific and/or Label specific and/or specified by the Pictet Group/Pictet Asset Management in the exclusion policy. We exclude five sectors based on harmfulness to the economy, i.e. we exclude sectors that we believe are not essential to the well-functioning of economy but carrying a higher regulatory or litigation risk such as weapon, gaming, tobacco/alcohol, adult entertainment and defence, We also exclude partly three other sectors based on harmfulness to the environment: thermal coal, oil & gas and nuclear.
For gaming, tobacco/alcohol, adult entertainment and defence, companies with over 5% of their revenues linked to these activities (i.e. production) are excluded. For companies who are not producing but distribution gaming, tobacco/alcohol, adult entertainment and defence products, this threshold is increased to 10% of revenue. Ex: a retailer selling cigarette will be excluded from our investment universe if the revenue from the sale of cigarette represent more than 10% of the retailer total revenue.
For thermal coal extraction and unconventional oil & gas, this threshold is 10%. For thermal coal power generation and nuclear, as well as conventional oil & gas production, this threshold increases to 25%. In addition, we are not investing in companies for which carbon emission exceed 393g CO2/kWh, meeting therefore the Febelfin label requirement. We are using an external provider for this specific filter.
Finally, we also implement the Pictet Group exclusion policy on companies involved in the production of anti-personnel mines, cluster munitions, biological & chemical weapons (including white phosphorous) and nuclear weapons from countries not signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). This policy applies to actively managed strategies (funds and segregated accounts). Investment managers are prohibited from trading any securities on the Controversial Weapons List, unless they are shorting the securities.
It is also worth to mention that the fund complies with the SVVK- ASIK exclusion list.
These exclusions are programmed into the portfolio management system, PAMFolio, and overseen by the Pictet Asset Management's Compliance department.
Stage 1: Screening on Financial Sustainability
During the first step, we mainly use an external database to screen about 3000 issuers using a set of criteria that can summarize into the following categories:
- Balance sheet strength (i.e. leverage)
- Income statement (i.e. revenue, margin)
- Liquidity
- Cash flow
- Financial policy (i.e. R&D, shareholders remuneration)
Each criterion has a proprietary weighting and is ranked by quartile. Typically, we avoid companies with aggressive share buybacks programme, high dividend payout and low and unstable operational margins. Using a best-in-class approach, we keep the top quartile of each sector or about 600 issuers. By using this approach, we ensure to have a balanced and representative investment universe. The objective is to select resilient issuers with a strong ability to navigate through the business cycle.
Stage 2: Proprietary ESG framework
In addition to our financial filter, in a second step, we apply our proprietary ESG filters, where all sectors are identified with over a dozen criteria of what we consider to be their most relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
The main criteria can be split under the following categories with a few examples for each:
- Environmental: CO2 intensity, environmental controversies, coal mining, oil reserve
- Social: Supply chain, business ethics, operations, employee incidents, social controversies
- Governance: Board, audit, management, governance, diversity, incentives.
The weighting of these KPIs varies according to sectors and leads to an ESG Credit Score. We use a mix of external ESG research with providers such as CFRA, ISS, Bloomberg and Sustainalytics, and our own research.
During stage 2, we screen around 600 issuers. We keep the top 50% (top 2 quartiles) of each sector or about 300 issuers at the end of this stage. These 300 issues represent our investable universe.
We do not use data providers aggregate ESG score. Instead, we have developed our own proprietary scorecard with Key Performance Indicators adapted to each sector. We decided to tailor-made the ESG scorecard to each sector to better capture risks and opportunities specific to each industry. We select different ESG KPIs for each sector and weight accordingly.
Stage 3 (Portfolio Construction) is qualitative and judgmental.
Resources, Affiliations & Corporate Strategies:
Pictet Asset Management has a dedicated ESG Team which leads and co-ordinates implementation of our responsible investment policy, including ESG integration in investment processes, ownership practices, risk management and reporting tools. The ESG Team reports directly to Sébastien Eisinger, Managing Partner Pictet Group, Co-CEO Pictet Asset Management and Head of Investments.
Key responsibilities include:
Investments
- Selection and due-diligence of external data providers in collaboration with investment teams and other B/Ls
- Development of proprietary assessment methodologies (eg sector-specific “E&S Deep Dives”, sovereign issuers)
- Integration of relevant ESG datasets in IT systems and definition of quality checks
- Training and awareness raising of investment teams
Active Ownership
- Definition of engagement strategy and proxy voting policy
- Co-ordinate targeted engagements and participation in collaborative initiatives
- Consensus building between investment teams on specific resolutions
Pictet Asset Management has been a signatory of the UNPRI since 2007. In addition, Pictet Asset Management actively participates in several investor initiatives aimed at sharing best practices between asset managers and owners and encouraging corporate disclosure on ESG issues. We are notably involved in the IIGCC (Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change), SSF (Swiss Sustainable Finance) and similar organisation in the UK, Germany and Spain.
Pictet Group and / or Pictet Asset Management supports and actively participates in international and national initiatives, organisations and partnerships including the below (which indicates Pictet’s involvement, year joined and key areas of focus) :
- FNG, SpainSIF: Member (2006) - Transparency on ESG
- UNPRI: Signatory (2007) - Transparency on ESG
- Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies (CIFS): Member, Research Partnership: Megatrends Research (2007) - Interdisciplinary academic disciplines
- CDP: Member (2007) - Carbon
- Swiss Climate Foundation: Corporate sponsor (2008) - Climate
- Sustainable Finance Geneva (SFG): Institutional Partner (Pictet Group), President Strategy and Surveillance Committee (2008) - Promotion of sustainable finance
- EFAMA (European Fund and Asset Management Association): Member of the Stewardship Market Integrity & ESG Investment Standing Committee (2010) - Fund and Asset Management
- Climate Bond Initiative: Member of the Standards Board (2013) - Climate
- IIGCC (Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change): Member of the Adaptation & Resilience Working Group (2013) - Climate
- FTSE Environmental Markets: Member of the Advisory Committee (2013) - Environment
- Swiss Sustainable Finance (SSF): Founding member (2014) - Promotion of the integration of sustainability in the financial industry
- JP Stewardship Code: Signatory (2014) - Stewardship standards
- Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC): Research Partnership: Planetary Boundaries Framework (from 2014-ongoing), Mistra Biodiversity Finance programme (from 2022) (2014) - Core focus is to advance research in the frontier of biosphere-based sustainability science, applying a social ecological approach and resilience thinking
- Investment Association: Member of the Sustainability and Responsible Investment Committee (2018) - Stewardship and Corporate governance
- Climate Action 100+: Collaborative Engagement (2018) - Climate
- Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI): Signatory (Pictet Group) (2018) - Delivery of nutritious, affordable foods.
- Empower: Partnership (2019) - Youth at Risk
- UNEP Finance Initiative: Signatory (Pictet Group) (2019) - Environment
- Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD): Signatory (2020) - Consistent climate-related financial risk disclosures
- FAIRR: Member (2021) - Animal agriculture
- ICGN (International Corporate Governance Network): Member (2021) - Governance
- Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI): Signatory (Pictet Group) (2021) - Climate
- Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative: Signatory (Pictet Group) (2021) - Climate
- ESG Data Convergence Project: Steering Committee member (Pictet Group) (2021) - ESG metrics
- UN Principles on Responsible Banking: Signatory (Pictet Group) (2021) - Sustainable/responsible banking
- UK Stewardship Code 2020: Signatory (2022) - Stewardship standards
- Institute of International Finance (IIF): Research Partnership: Bonds that build back better (2022) - Green, transition, social, sustainability & sustainability-linked bonds
- Responsible Investing Association (RIA): Member (2022) - Canada's industry association for responsible investment
- Ceres Valuing Water Finance Initiative: Signatory (Pictet Group) (2022) - Water
- Finance for Biodiversity Foundation: Member (Pictet Group); participants in the Impact Assessment and Engagement Working Groups. (2022) - Biodiversity
- Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD): Member of TNFD Forum (Pictet Group) (2022) - Risk management and disclosure framework on nature-related issues
- UN Global Compact: Signatory (Pictet Group) (2022) - Global sustainability principles
Source: Pictet Asset Management, [April 2023]
Other industry associations:
- Asset Management Association Switzerland (AMAS): Member (Pictet Group), Member of the Distribution, Taxes Specialist Committees (1993) - Swiss Asset Management industry development
- German Investment Funds Association (BVI): Member (2004) - German Asset Management industry development
- International Capital Markets Association (ICMA): Member (xx) Securities market
Furthermore, Pictet, together with Swiss Sustainable Finance, was leading an initiative to put pressure on index providers to remove controversial weapon manufacturers from mainstream indices. The initiative, launched in August 2018, secured the backing of 174 signatories controlling over USD 9.7 trillion and including international asset owners and managers (as of January 2020). This initiative has now been closed due to inclusion of controversial weapons exposure disclosures in draft RTS and EU Benchmarking regulation.
SDR Labelling: Not eligible to use label
Fund Name | SRI Style | SDR Labelling | Product | Region | Asset Type | Launch Date | Last Amended |
|
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![]() Pictet Global Sustainable Credit Fund |
ESG Plus | Not eligible to use label | SICAV/Offshore | Global | Fixed Interest | 28/06/2010 | May 2023 | |
ObjectivesThe fund has 3 main objectives:
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Fund Size: £715.00m (as at: 31/07/2024) Total Screened Themed SRI Assets: £49415.00m (as at: 31/07/2024) Total Responsible Ownership Assets: £174795.00m (as at: 31/07/2024) Total Assets Under Management: £224615.00m (as at: 31/07/2024) ISIN: LU1898274581, LU1898274664 Contact Us: lrichards@pictet.com |
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Sustainable, Responsible &/or ESG OverviewAwaiting update from manager (August 2024)
Pictet - Global Sustainable Credit follows a global, bottom-up investment approach and invests primarily in BBB/BBs - bonds of high-quality issuers. The fund aims to achieve a positive environmental and/or social impact by investing in sustainable companies
Combined with a strict exclusion policy, the Fund opts for a “leader” approach based on both financial and extra-financial factors. Through this “leader” approach, the Fund aims at selecting issuers with strong financial sustainability and ESG credentials, therefore better able to navigate throughout the market cycle. The Fund not only aims to invest in the securities of issuers that have sound business practices with low extra financial material risks but also aims at identifying companies that thanks to their reliable and responsible business models may emerge as leaders in their sectors. |
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Primary fund last amended: May 2023 |
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Information received directly from Fund Manager |
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Fund FiltersSustainability - General
Sustainability policy
Funds that have policies that consider (environmental and social) sustainability issues. Strategies vary but are likely to consider environmental issues like climate change, carbon emissions, biodiversity loss, resource management, environmental impacts; and social issues like equal opportunities, human rights, labour standards, diversity and adherence to internationally recognised codes. See fund information.
Sustainability focus
Find funds which substantially focus on sustainability issues
Sustainability theme or focus
Find funds where there is a significant emphasis on (environmental and social) sustainability. Funds with a 'sustainability theme' typically place more emphasis on the area than funds with a 'sustainability policy' - meaning that it is more likely to drive investment selection. Strategies vary. See fund information for further detail.
Encourage more sustainable practices through stewardship
A core element of these funds aim to encourage higher sustainability standards across business practices through responsible ownership / stewardship / engagement / voting activity
UN Global Compact linked exclusion policy
Find funds that use the UN Global Compact to inform or help direct where they can or cannot invest and will typically not invest in companies with significant breaches (low standards) - although strategies vary. (The UNGC covers a wide range of issues - search 'UNGC'). See https://unglobalcompact.org/ Environmental - General
Limits exposure to carbon intensive industries
Funds that limit or 'reduce' their exposure to carbon intensive industries (ie sectors which are major contributors to climate change. Funds vary - some funds may be 'underweight' in this area which means they may have some investment in highly carbon intensive areas. Funds of this kind may choose companies they consider to be 'best in sector' and encourage ever higher standards. Strategies vary. See fund information for further details.
Favours cleaner, greener companies
Funds that aim to invest in companies with strong or market leading environmental policies and practices. Strategies vary - in particular the balance between 'financial' aspects and environmental benefits. Some may invest substantially in solutions or 'positive impact' companies - others may invest in more conventional companies providing certain environmental criteria are met. See fund information for further detail. Nature & Biodiversity
Avoids genetically modified seeds/crop production
Find funds that aim to avoid investing in companies that produce genetically modified seeds or crops. (This does not typically include avoiding companies such as supermarkets). See fund literature for further information.
Genetic engineering exclusion
Fund avoids assets / companies directly involved in genetic engineering Climate Change & Energy
Coal, oil & / or gas majors excluded
Funds that avoid investing in major coal, oil and/or gas (extraction) companies. Funds vary: some may exclude all companies that extract oil. Others may have exposure to oil extraction via more diversified energy companies. See fund literature to confirm details.
Fracking and tar sands excluded
Funds that avoid companies involved in fracking and tar sands - which are widely regarded as controversial methods of oil and gas extraction. Strategies vary. See fund information for further information.
Arctic drilling exclusion
Funds that avoid companies that are involved in extracting oil from the Arctic regions. See fund literature for further details.
Fossil fuel reserves exclusion
Funds that avoid investing in companies with coal, oil and gas reserves. See fund information for further details.
Clean / renewable energy theme or focus
Find funds where investment in clean / renewable energy companies an other assets is central to their investment selection strategy. The proportion of the fund that is directly or indirectly invested in renewable energy varies between funds and over time. See fund information for further details.
Encourage transition to low carbon through stewardship activity
A core element of these funds will aim to encourage the transition to lower carbon activities through responsible ownership / stewardship / engagement / voting activity
Invests in clean energy / renewables
Funds that hold companies in the clean energy and renewable energy sectors (at the time research was supplied). Fund strategies vary, in particular the proportion of investment in these areas may vary significantly. Check fund literature for details.
Nuclear exclusion policy
Find funds that have policies which say they avoid or limit their investment in the nuclear industry. Strategies vary. See fund information for further detail.
Fossil fuel exploration exclusion - direct involvement
The fund manager excludes companies with direct involvement in fossil fuel exploration (eg coal, oil and gas companies)
Fossil fuel exploration exclusion – indirect involvement
The fund manager excludes companies with indirect involvement in fossil fuel exploration. For example they would be expected to exclude banks and insurance companies that are effectively enabling new coal, oil and or gas reserves to be discovered and in due course extracted through the provision of necessary finance or services. Social / Employment
Health & wellbeing policies or theme
Find funds with policies or themes that set out their approach to health and wellbeing issues. Funds of this kind typically aim to invest in companies with high standards - or encourage high standards. Themed funds are likely to have more of an emphasis on this area. Strategies vary. See fund information for further detail.
Mining exclusion
All mining companies excluded Ethical Values Led Exclusions
Tobacco and related product manufacturers excluded
Companies are excluded if they are involved in any aspect of the production chain for tobacco products, including cigarettes, vaping, e-cigarettes, chewing tobacco and cigars.
Armaments manufacturers avoided
Find funds that avoid companies that manufacture products intended specifically for military use. Fund strategies vary - particularly with regard to non-strategic military products. See fund literature for fund specific details.
Civilian firearms production exclusion
Find funds with a written civilian firearms exclusion policy - meaning that they will not invest in companies that make (or perhaps also sell) handguns made for non-military users.
Alcohol production excluded
Find funds that avoid investment in companies involved in the production of alcohol. Strategies vary; some funds allow a small proportion of profits to come from this area. See fund literature for further information.
Gambling avoidance policy
Find funds that avoid companies with significant involvement in the gambling industry. Some funds may allow a small proportion of profits to come from this area. See fund policy for further details.
Pornography avoidance policy
Find funds that avoid companies that derive significant income from pornography and related areas. Strategies vary. See fund details for further information. Human Rights
Child labour exclusion
Find funds that have policies in place to ensure they do not invest in companies that employ children. Meeting Peoples' Basic Needs
Water / sanitation policy or theme
Find funds that have policies or themes that set out their position on investment in the water sector and/or sanitation. Strategies vary. See fund information for further detail.
Invests > 5% in social bonds
Find funds that invest in ‘social bonds’ which raise funds for the purpose of financing projects with positive social (people related) outcomes.
Green infrastructure focus
Fund focuses on (ie directs a significant proportion of its investment towards) green infrastructure, eg the clean energy supply chain. See fund details.
Healthcare / medical theme
Healthcare and or medical theme or area of investment - the fund may have a single theme or many themes Gilts & Sovereigns
Gilts / government bonds - exclude some
Find funds that avoid investing in 'some' gilts or government bonds. Strategies vary, but this may relate to avoiding specific countries or particular reasons for bond issuance. 'Green gilts' for example would be likely to be acceptable. See fund literature for further information.
Gilts / government bonds - exclude all
Find funds that do not invest in, or exclude, gilts and/or government bonds. Governance & Management
Avoids companies with poor governance
Find funds that aim to avoid investing in companies with poor governance practices.(e.g. board structure, management practices etc.) Views may however vary on what counts as 'poor' practices - and funds may not immediately divest as they may prefer to work to encourage higher standards. See fund literature for further information.
UN sanctions exclusion
Exclude companies that are subject to United Nations sanctions. See eg https://main.un.org/securitycouncil/en/content/un-sc-consolidated-list
Encourage board diversity e.g. gender
Fund managers encourage the companies they invest in to have more diverse board structures (e.g. more women on boards)
Encourage higher ESG standards through stewardship activity
A core element of these funds will aim to encourage higher ESG standards through responsible ownership / stewardship / engagement /voting activity Asset Size
Over 50% large cap companies
Find funds that invests more than half of their money into what are commonly regarded as 'large companies'. This will typically mean that the market capitalisation (or value) of the companies they hold is in excess of £5 to £10 billion.
Invests mostly in large cap companies / assets
Find funds that have SRI strategies and focus their investment stock selection on larger companies. (e.g. over circa £5-£10bn) Targeted Positive Investments
Invests > 5% in sustainable bonds
Invests in loan stock that is exclusively used to finance environmental and social projects. See ICMA Sustainable Bond Guidelines.
EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy holdings 5-25% of fund assets
Find funds that have calculated the proportion of fund asset that meet the new EU Taxonomy requirements and that they total 5-25% of assets. This will typically require adding up the proportion of each individual company's activity that is regarded as 'green' so that the fund manager can produce an overall total for the whole fund / portfolio. Impact Methodologies
Aims to generate positive impacts (or 'outcomes')
Funds that aim to help or support the delivery of positive social or environmental impacts (or societal/real world outcomes) by investing in companies they regard as beneficial to people and / or the planet. Strategies vary. See fund literature for further information.
Described as an ‘impact investment fund’
Funds that are specifically marketed as ‘Impact investments funds' will work to deliver both financial performance and specific, measurable positive, real world social and/or environmental benefits. Strategies vary.
Positive environmental impact theme
Find funds that specifically set out to help deliver positive environmental impacts, benefits or 'real world' outcomes.
Positive social impact theme
Find funds that specifically state that they aim to deliver positive social (i.e. people related) impacts and/or outcomes.
Aim to deliver positive impacts through engagement
Fund aims to deliver positive environmental and or social impacts (real world benefits) through its engagement with investee assets
Over 50% in assets providing environmental or social ‘solutions’
50% of fund assets are regarded by the fund manager as being significantly focused on providing solutions to environmental or social challenges. Strategies vary. How The Fund Works
Positive selection bias
Find funds that focus on finding and investing in companies with positive / beneficial attributes. This strategy can be applied in addition to exclusion criteria and engagement/stewardship activity.
Negative selection bias
Find funds where their main 'ethical approach' is to avoid companies by using negative screening criteria. Read fund literature for further information.
Significant harm exclusion
Aims to avoid companies that do significant harm. This originates from the EU’s sustainable finance ‘DNSH’ (do no significant harm) work, which is not necessarily used by UK investors.
Combines norms based exclusions with other SRI criteria
Find funds that make significant use of internationally agreed 'norms' (e.g. United Nations Global Compact - UNGC - or the UN Sustainable Development Goals - SDGs) as part of their investment selection process alongside additional SRI criteria such as positive or negative stock selection policies and/or stewardship strategies.
Combines ESG strategy with other SRI criteria
Find funds that have an ESG strategy (which is typically focused on avoiding companies that pose environmental, social or governance related risks) with additional criteria such as positive and/or negative screens, themes and stewardship strategies.
Focus on ESG risk mitigation
A major focus of these funds is the careful management of environmental, social and governance (ESG) related risks - typically by avoiding or being underweight in companies seen as posing major risks in these areas (i.e. not necessarily by using themes, exclusions etc).
SRI / ESG / Ethical policies explained on website
Find funds that have published explanations of their ethical, social and/or environmental policies online (i.e. fund decision making strategies/ buy/sell &/or asset management strategies). Unscreened Assets & Cash
All assets (except cash) meet published sustainability criteria
All assets held in the fund - except cash - meet the sustainability criteria published in fund documentation. Labels & Accreditations
SFDR Article 9 fund / product (EU)
Finds funds classified under Article 9 of the EU’s SFDR (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Requirements). Article 9 of the SFDR applies to financial products that have sustainable investment 'objectives' - including emissions reduction objectives. (These may currently be referred to as 'impact' funds or aiming to deliver clear, specific positive outcomes.) These rules do not currently apply in the UK so fund managers may leave this field blank. Fund Management Company InformationAbout The Business
Boutique / specialist fund management company
Find fund management companies that are smaller or specialise in particular areas - notably, ideally ESG related. Strategies vary.
Responsible ownership / stewardship policy or strategy (AFM company wide)
Finds fund management companies that have a published company wide stewardship, engagement and / or responsible ownership policy or strategy that covers all investments. Stewardship typically involves encouraging higher ESG standards through voting and dialogue.
ESG / SRI engagement (AFM company wide)
Find fund management companies that actively encourage higher 'environmental, social and governance' and/or 'sustainable and responsible investment' practices across investee companies - typically where the aim is to encourage positive change that is aligned with the best interests of investors. Strategies vary. See additional information and options.
Vote all* shares at AGMs / EGMs (AFM company wide)
Find fund managers that vote all* the shares they own at Annual General Meetings and Extraordinary General Meetings. A commitment to voting shares is a key indicator of 'responsible share ownership' demonstrating their support for or disagreement with management policy. (*situations can legitimately, occasionally occur where voting proves impossible, but in principle all shares should be voted.)
Responsible ownership / ESG a key differentiator (AFM company wide)
Find fund managers that consider responsible ownership and ESG to be a key differentiator for their business.
Sustainable property strategy (AFM company wide)
Find fund management companies that take sustainability criteria into account when selecting and/or managing all of their property / real estate investments.
Senior management KPIs include environmental goals (AFM company wide)
The leadership team of this asset manager have performance targets linked to environmental goals.
Responsible ownership policy for non SRI funds (AFM company wide)
Find funds run by fund managers that apply Responsible ownership or 'Stewardship' policies to all or most of their investment assets. This means active involvement (e.g. voting, dialogue) with the companies they invest in across funds (not normally limited to ethical or SRI options.) Read fund literature for further information.
Integrates ESG factors into all / most (AFM) fund research
Find fund management companies that consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues when deciding whether or not to invest in a company for all / almost all of their funds and other assets. This is increasingly seen as part of sound risk management.
In-house diversity improvement programme (AFM company wide)
Finds organisations / fund managers that have an in-house (company wide) diversity improvement programme - meaning that they are working to ensure that within their own businesses they employ people from diverse backgrounds - often typically focused on ethnicity and/or sex.
Invests in newly listed companies (AFM company wide)
This asset management company invests in companies which have recently listed on a stock exchange (which is important as it can help grow new businesses).
Invests in new sustainability linked bond issuances (AFM company wide)
Asset management company has investments in bonds designed to meet sustainability requirements - however these assets may not be 'ringfenced' for this purpose. See fund manager website for details.
Offer structured intermediary training on sustainable investment
Fund management entity offers unstructured intermediary training on sustainable investment (ie for financial advisers and wealth managers) Collaborations & Affiliations
PRI signatory
Find fund management companies that have signed up to the UN backed 'Principles of Responsible Investment'.
Fund EcoMarket partner
Find fund management companies that have partnered with Fund EcoMarket - meaning that they are helping to improve access to information on sustainable and responsible investment by paying an annual fee to us which enables us to publish information for free. Partner funds are listed ahead of other funds and have their logos displayed.
UN Principles of Responsible Banking framework signatory-co wide
This asset manager has signed up to the UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) program which aims to encourage more responsible banking practices – focused on environmental and social issues.
TNFD forum member (AFM company wide)
A member of the Taskforce for Nature Related Financial Disclosures group which aims to aid risk management and shift money towards nature-positive outcomes.
Investment Association (IA) member
Fund management entity is a member of the Investment Association https://www.theia.org/ Resources
In-house responsible ownership / voting expertise
Find fund management companies that employ people to steer and support fund managers in voting shares at company AGM's and EGMs in ways that are consistent with encouraging higher ESG/sustainability standards.
Employ specialist ESG / SRI / sustainability researchers
Find a fund management company that directly employs specialist ESG/SRI/sustainability researchers or analysts. This allows asset managers to discuss environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities directly with companies.
Use specialist ESG / SRI / sustainability research companies
Find fund management companies that makes use of expert external research companies. This can help deliver specialist expertise and means resources are pooled with other investors. Accreditations
UK Stewardship Code signatory (AFM company wide)
Find fund managers that are signatories to the FRC UK Stewardship Code, which sets out a framework for constructive investor / investee relations where fund managers are encouraged to behave like responsible, typically longer term 'company owners'. Engagement Approach
Regularly lead collaborative ESG initiatives (AFM company wide)
Find fund management companies that regularly initiate or run industry wide (collaborative) investor projects aimed at raising environmental, social and governance standards amongst investee companies.
Engaging on climate change issues
Fund manager has stewardship /responsible ownership strategy that is focused on addressing climate change with investee assets.
Engaging with fossil fuel companies on climate change
Asset manager has a stewardship /responsible ownership strategy that involves working with fossil fuel companies on climate change related issues. See fund manager website for details.
Engaging to reduce plastics pollution / waste
Asset manager has stewardship /responsible ownership strategy with involves encouraging investee asset to reduce plastic waste and pollution.
Engaging to encourage responsible mining practices
Asset manager has a stewardship / responsible ownership policy that means they are working to encourage more responsible mining practices - where environmental and social issues are properly dealt with by the companies they invest in.
Engaging on biodiversity / nature issues
The asset manager has a responsible ownership / stewardship strategy that focuses on biodiversity and nature issues relating to the assets they invest the aim of which will be to reduce harm and or deliver improvement. Strategies vary. https://tnfd.global
Engaging to encourage a Just Transition
Asset manager has a responsible ownership / stewardship strategy which means they are working to encourage the shift to more sustainable business practices in ways that respect and are sensitive to social issues and the impact change has on people effected by the changes that are taking place. https://www.transitionpathwayinitiative.org/ https://transitiontaskforce.net/
Engaging on human rights issues
Asset manager has responsible ownership / stewardship strategy in place which aims to address human rights issues in investee companies (and potentially their suppliers) with the aim of raising standards
Engaging on labour / employment issues
Asset manager has responsible ownership / stewardship strategy in place that aims to improve labour standards for the benefit of employees in investee companies (and potentially their suppliers)
Engaging on diversity, equality and / or inclusion issues
Asset management company has a stewardship strategy in place which involves working to raise diversity, equality and inclusion standards across investee assets
Engaging on governance issues
Fund managers have stewardship strategies in place that focus on improving governance standards across investee assets
Engaging on responsible supply chain issues
Has a stewardship / responsible ownership strategy that encourages responsible supply chain - ie the managers will discuss environmental, social and governance issues with investee companies with the aim of raising standards Company Wide Exclusions
Controversial weapons avoidance policy (AFM company wide)
Find fund management companies (not funds) that avoid investment in 'controversial weapons' across all of their funds and other investment vehicles.
Fossil fuel exclusion policy (AFM company wide)
Find fund management companies that avoid investment in fossil fuel companies (e.g. coal, oil and gas) across all of their funds. (and/ or other assets.)
Coal exclusion policy (group wide coal mining exclusion policy)
This asset manager excludes direct investment in the coal mining industry. Managers ability to do this may depend on the geographic regions in which they invest. Climate & Net Zero Transition
Net Zero commitment (AFM company wide)
Fund management organisations that have pledged to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to ‘net zero’. Strategies vary - this area is changing rapidly.
Publish 'CEO owned' Climate Risk policy (AFM company wide)
Find fund management companies that have published a Climate Risk policy or statement that is signed / owned by their Chief Executive.
Net Zero - have set a Net Zero target date (AFM company wide)
This asset management company has set a date by which they plan to achieve net zero greenhouse gas / CO2e emissions.
Encourage carbon / greenhouse gas reduction (AFM company wide)
Find fund management companies that are working with the companies they invest in to encourage reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.
Carbon offsetting - offset carbon as part of our net zero plan (AFM company wide)
This asset management company plans to achieve net zero greenhouse gas (CO2e) emissions with the help of a scheme that will lock away an amount of carbon that is equivalent to the company’s own emissions – so that the end result is ‘net zero’. Calculations and scope vary.
In-house carbon / GHG reduction policy (AFM company wide)
Find fund management companies that are working to reduce their own (fund management company) carbon/greenhouse gas emissions.
Working towards a ‘Net Zero’ commitment (AFM company wide)
Finds organisations / fund management companies that are in the process of working out how to make a ‘net zero commitment’ - meaning that when that is finalised they will have started the process of reducing their total greenhouse gas emissions to'zero'.
Committed to SBTi / Science Based Targets Initiative
See https://sciencebasedtargets.org/ Transparency
Publish responsible ownership / stewardship report (AFM company wide)
Find fund management companies that publish a report detailing their responsible investment ownership - also known as 'Stewardship' - activity.
Full SRI / responsible ownership policy information on company website
Find companies that publish information about their sustainable and responsible investment strategies on their company website.
Publish full voting record (AFM company wide)
Fund management companies that publish a full record of how they vote their shares at AGMs (annual general meetings) and EGMs (extraordinary general meetings). Voting strategies have an important role to play encouraging higher environmental, social and governance standards.
Sustainability transition plan publicly available (AFM company wide)
This asset management company has published a plan that explains how they are to become a sustainable business - without significant negative environmental or social impacts.
Paris Alignment plan publicly available (AFM company wide)
This asset management company has published a plan that explains how they will align to the climate change commitments made at the Paris Climate Talks, COP21.
Net Zero transition plan publicly available (AFM company wide)
This asset management company has published a plan that explains how they are going to achieve net zero greenhouse gas / CO2e emissions. Sustainable, Responsible &/or ESG Policy:We are convinced that ESG considerations can help us make better long-term investment decisions while limiting environmental negative impact (lower carbon footprint) and contributing positively to several UN Sustainable Development Goals. As such, we are committed to integrating material ESG criteria in their investment process with a view to enhance returns. Recent examples have exacerbated the reputational risk of companies having poor corporate governance and/or low environmental considerations. We believe a growing portion of corporates’ risk is driven by extra-financial factors like fraudulent accounting or bad corporate governance. Since the Great financial crisis, governments worldwide have adopted environmental rules that are tighter, covering an increasing number of sectors and coming into force faster. Almost all companies are impacted and need to change their business models. The ones proactively adapting their business models and minimizing ESG risks will prove more resilient and emerge as leaders. Our core beliefs and approach:
Process:Our investment process follows three stages:
Ahead of stage 1 of the investment process, we narrow down the investment universe by applying a set of exclusions. The exclusions can be Fund specific and/or Label specific and/or specified by the Pictet Group/Pictet Asset Management in the exclusion policy. We exclude five sectors based on harmfulness to the economy, i.e. we exclude sectors that we believe are not essential to the well-functioning of economy but carrying a higher regulatory or litigation risk such as weapon, gaming, tobacco/alcohol, adult entertainment and defence, We also exclude partly three other sectors based on harmfulness to the environment: thermal coal, oil & gas and nuclear. For gaming, tobacco/alcohol, adult entertainment and defence, companies with over 5% of their revenues linked to these activities (i.e. production) are excluded. For companies who are not producing but distribution gaming, tobacco/alcohol, adult entertainment and defence products, this threshold is increased to 10% of revenue. Ex: a retailer selling cigarette will be excluded from our investment universe if the revenue from the sale of cigarette represent more than 10% of the retailer total revenue. For thermal coal extraction and unconventional oil & gas, this threshold is 10%. For thermal coal power generation and nuclear, as well as conventional oil & gas production, this threshold increases to 25%. In addition, we are not investing in companies for which carbon emission exceed 393g CO2/kWh, meeting therefore the Febelfin label requirement. We are using an external provider for this specific filter. Finally, we also implement the Pictet Group exclusion policy on companies involved in the production of anti-personnel mines, cluster munitions, biological & chemical weapons (including white phosphorous) and nuclear weapons from countries not signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). This policy applies to actively managed strategies (funds and segregated accounts). Investment managers are prohibited from trading any securities on the Controversial Weapons List, unless they are shorting the securities. It is also worth to mention that the fund complies with the SVVK- ASIK exclusion list. These exclusions are programmed into the portfolio management system, PAMFolio, and overseen by the Pictet Asset Management's Compliance department.
Stage 1: Screening on Financial Sustainability During the first step, we mainly use an external database to screen about 3000 issuers using a set of criteria that can summarize into the following categories:
Each criterion has a proprietary weighting and is ranked by quartile. Typically, we avoid companies with aggressive share buybacks programme, high dividend payout and low and unstable operational margins. Using a best-in-class approach, we keep the top quartile of each sector or about 600 issuers. By using this approach, we ensure to have a balanced and representative investment universe. The objective is to select resilient issuers with a strong ability to navigate through the business cycle.
Stage 2: Proprietary ESG framework In addition to our financial filter, in a second step, we apply our proprietary ESG filters, where all sectors are identified with over a dozen criteria of what we consider to be their most relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The main criteria can be split under the following categories with a few examples for each:
The weighting of these KPIs varies according to sectors and leads to an ESG Credit Score. We use a mix of external ESG research with providers such as CFRA, ISS, Bloomberg and Sustainalytics, and our own research. During stage 2, we screen around 600 issuers. We keep the top 50% (top 2 quartiles) of each sector or about 300 issuers at the end of this stage. These 300 issues represent our investable universe. We do not use data providers aggregate ESG score. Instead, we have developed our own proprietary scorecard with Key Performance Indicators adapted to each sector. We decided to tailor-made the ESG scorecard to each sector to better capture risks and opportunities specific to each industry. We select different ESG KPIs for each sector and weight accordingly.
Stage 3 (Portfolio Construction) is qualitative and judgmental. Resources, Affiliations & Corporate Strategies:Pictet Asset Management has a dedicated ESG Team which leads and co-ordinates implementation of our responsible investment policy, including ESG integration in investment processes, ownership practices, risk management and reporting tools. The ESG Team reports directly to Sébastien Eisinger, Managing Partner Pictet Group, Co-CEO Pictet Asset Management and Head of Investments. Key responsibilities include: Investments
Active Ownership
Pictet Asset Management has been a signatory of the UNPRI since 2007. In addition, Pictet Asset Management actively participates in several investor initiatives aimed at sharing best practices between asset managers and owners and encouraging corporate disclosure on ESG issues. We are notably involved in the IIGCC (Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change), SSF (Swiss Sustainable Finance) and similar organisation in the UK, Germany and Spain.
Pictet Group and / or Pictet Asset Management supports and actively participates in international and national initiatives, organisations and partnerships including the below (which indicates Pictet’s involvement, year joined and key areas of focus) :
Source: Pictet Asset Management, [April 2023]
Other industry associations:
Furthermore, Pictet, together with Swiss Sustainable Finance, was leading an initiative to put pressure on index providers to remove controversial weapon manufacturers from mainstream indices. The initiative, launched in August 2018, secured the backing of 174 signatories controlling over USD 9.7 trillion and including international asset owners and managers (as of January 2020). This initiative has now been closed due to inclusion of controversial weapons exposure disclosures in draft RTS and EU Benchmarking regulation. SDR Labelling: Not eligible to use label |