Amundi has expanded its responsible investment offering with the addition of the Amundi MSCI Emerging ESG Leaders UCITS ETF. The fund launches with an initial investment of over EUR500 million from Ilmarinen, Finland’s largest pension insurance company.
The Amundi MSCI Emerging ESG Leaders UCITS ETF tracks an index that provides exposure to companies with high ESG performance relative to their sector peers, comprising large- and mid-cap companies across 26 Emerging Markets (EM) countries. The index takes a “do no harm” approach, excluding companies involved in tobacco, alcohol, gambling, nuclear power, weapons and other controversial business involvement. The fund also benefits from Amundi’s commitment to active ownership, which has a strong track record of voting in line with ESG criteria.
Ilmarinen has made sustainability an integral aspect of its overall company philosophy and investment strategy for more than a decade. The firm is responsible for providing pension insurance for approximately 1.2 million people and has around EUR50 billion investment assets, all of which integrate responsible investing principles.
Juha Venäläinen, Senior Portfolio Manager, Ilmarinen, says: “We invest pension assets so that the return on them also secures the pensions of future generations. Emerging market exposure is a key component of our portfolio and we are delighted to offer our beneficiaries exposure to responsible investment opportunities in this space. Ilmarinen is an active owner and seeks to partner with asset managers who share this mission.”
Gaëtan Delculée, Head of Amundi ETF, Indexing and Smart Beta Sales, says: “We are pleased that Ilmarinen has partnered with Amundi – both organisations have a history of responsible investing and engaging constructively with companies. Following the extension of our responsible investment range last month with eight new Amundi equity ESG ETFs, we are proud to continue to broaden our offering with exposure to leading ESG companies in the emerging markets.”
This new fund forms part of Amundi’s comprehensive range of responsible investing ETFs, making sustainable investing accessible to investors whatever their requirements are in terms of ESG integration and focus, and their accepted tracking error compared to their conventional benchmarks.
