M&G Investments on Tuesday 12 March announced that it has been granted an SRI label for three of its funds. The label, issued by Ernst & Young, an independent accreditation body officially licensed by the French state, has been awarded to two equity funds, M&G (Lux) Global Select Fund and M&G (Lux) Pan European Select Fund, and to one bond fund, M&G (Lux) Global High Yield ESG Bond Fund. The M&G (Lux) Global High Yield ESG Bond Fund, co-managed by James Tomlins and Stefan Isaacs, combines the expertise of M&G in high yield bond management with evaluation of ESG factors. The fund adopts a quantifiable ESG strategy, and selects potential investments using a three-stage filtering process. The M&G (Lux) Global Select Fund and M&G (Lux) Pan European Select Fund, both of which are managed by John William Olsen, prefer long-term sustainable investments. The factors that influence the long-term sustainability of a company include competition in the industry, the structure of the sector, the management of the company, and the way in which it treats its clients, communities, employees, and the environment. “One of our objectives is to integrate extra-financial ESG criteria into as many investment strategies as possible,” Brice Anger, CEO of M&G in France, says in a statement. M&G has recently added to its ESG product range with the launch of the M&G (Lux) Positive Impact Fund, a fund of publicly-traded equities, and the M&G (Lux) Sustainable Allocation Fund, a multi-asset vehicle.
