Aegon has decided to pivot to climate transition, by renaming the bond fund. Aegon Asset Management has focused its Short Dated Investment Grade Bond on the net-zero global economy transformation.
The fund worth £490m will go under the full name of Global Short Dated Climate Transition fund. It has become part of Article 8 fund under EU’s SFDR.
Iain Buckle, who is the head of UK credit, and Rory Sandilands, who is fixed income manager, will be co-managers of the fund. Both of them have more than two decades of working experience in this industry.
As a part of the development into a climate transition fund, the fund has set Aegon’s exclusive climate net-zero climate policy and under wider ESG scrutiny into its portfolio. At the same time, it will work with the firm’s investment team and the global credit research team as well.
The fund will resume as a short-term bond strategy. It will aim to provide a cash return of +1.25% gross of fees during a period of three consecutive years, with no less than 30% reduced carbon footprint than the wider credit market, as defined by the BAML Global Large Cap Corporate index.
Moreover, the fund will focus more on active management. The idea is the fund to possess an assorted core portfolio of investment grade bonds which are expected to mature in less than four years with a largest permissible submission of 20% in high yield bonds.
Buckle said that “the firm sensed that it had been suitable the fund’s name to mirror strongly its investment attitude and RI principles”, since it was to become an Article 8 fund under EU’s SFDR.
He wanted to point out that the fund possessed tremendously skilled professionals whose experience was strong in the field of managing short-term investment grade strategies.
