- From the end of February 2020, Erste Asset Management will be managing more than 50 funds with assets under management of EUR 13.4bn on the basis of criteria of sustainability
- This explicitly integrates environmental, social, and governance topics (ESG) with investment decisions
- Sustainability will become part of the corporate mission statement
Erste Asset Management expands on its pioneering role in the area of ethics and environmental issues We issued the first sustainable mutual fund as early as in 2001, and since 2006, the fund has been co-managed by WWF. Erste Asset Management is the market leader in Austria in this field with a total of 15 sustainable mutual funds and numerous special funds with assets under management of EUR 6.6bn at this point in time. Now the company is taking the next step by making sustainable criteria an integral part of a large number of its investment decisions. This will raise the assets under management that explicitly take into account ESG criteria to EUR 13.4bn (as of 31 January 2020).
“It is our task to manage the capital we have been entrusted with to the best of our abilities. We know that by taking into account sustainable criteria, we can provide our clients with a better risk-adjusted performance in the long run. Of course, this does not change the basic structuring of the funds,” as Heinz Bednar, CEO of Erste Asset Management, points out.
Erste AM has already implemented certain minimum criteria that the individual securities of its actively managed mutual funds have to fulfil. For example, Erste AM excludes investment in companies that operate in the field of banned weapons. This also applies to investments in derivatives instruments on food and to investments in companies where coal accounts for more than 30% of total sales.
As the first investment company in Austria, Erste Asset Management also decided in 2015 to sign the Montréal Carbon Pledge. This means the company agreed to measure and publish the carbon footprint of its portfolios. In addition, Erste Asset Management operates as sustainable investor by exercising the voting rights held by its investment funds to support ESG shareholder petitions.
Sustainability factors to become part of the investment process
In addition to the fundamental criteria taken into account so far (e.g. ROE, P/E ratio etc.), our fund managers will be considering environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects for parts of our product range. This means that in the future these criteria will not only be relevant across a few designated, sustainable funds, but they will be part of the investment process across the majority of our mutual funds.
For our clients, nothing else will change; the underlying structuring of the various funds will of course remain the same: if you have bought a European equity fund, you will continue to hold a European equity fund; if you have bought a global bond fund, you will continue to hold a global bond fund, and so on. The main difference is that sustainability criteria will be taken into account, which in turn improves the quality of the fund. There are different ways the ESG criteria will be considered. From the end of February onwards, more than 50 funds will be managed on the basis of the integrated ESG criteria.
Sustainability will become part of the corporate mission statement
On top of more stringent criteria, Erste AM will also integrate sustainability more within the company and make it part of the corporate mission statement. In doing so, we calculate the carbon footprint of Erste Asset Management and try to establish with external partners how EAM can optimise its resource input (e.g. stationary) and support its employees in improving their behaviour in terms of environmental friendliness (e.g. transport). Also, the company has invested its equity capital sustainably since 2016.
“We are not taking this step lightly. It is important to us not to engage in greenwashing and instead to inform transparently and anticipate important developments such as the EU action plan on green finance. We want to be a significant driver for the qualitative development of the market for sustainable investments,” concludes Bednar.
Erste AM CEO Heinz Bednar
About us:
Erste Asset Management (Erste AM) coordinates, and is responsible for, all asset management activities within Erste Group. At our offices in Austria, Germany, Croatia, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, we manage assets of about EUR 64.19bn (as of 30 December 2019).
Erste Asset Management has been awarded the title of Best Investment Company of the Year by the trade magazine “Börsianer”.
For enquiries, please contact:
Communications & Digital Marketing
Armand Feka
Tel. +43 (0)50 100 12341
E-Mail: armand.feka@erste-am.com
Erste Asset Management GmbH
Am Belvedere 1, A-1100 Wien
www.erste-am.com
Sitz Wien, FN 102018b,
Handelsgericht Wien, DVR 0468703
Disclaimer
This document is an advertisement. All data is sourced from Erste Asset Management GmbH, unless indicated otherwise. Our languages of communication are German and English.
The prospectus for UCITS (including any amendments) is published in Amtsblatt zur Wiener Zeitung in accordance with the provisions of the InvFG 2011 in the currently amended version. Information for Investors pursuant to § 21 AIFMG is prepared for the alternative investment funds (AIF) administered by Erste Asset Management GmbH, pursuant to the provisions of the AIFMG in connection with the InvFG 2011.
The fund prospectus, Information for Investors pursuant to § 21 AIFMG, and the key investor document/KID can be viewed in their latest versions at the web site www.erste-am.com or obtained in their latest versions free of charge from the domicile of the management company and the domicile of the custodian bank. The exact date of the most recent publication of the fund prospectus, the languages in which the key investor document is available, and any additional locations where the documents can be obtained can be viewed on the web site www.erste-am.com.
This document serves as additional information for our investors and is based on the knowledge of the staff responsible for preparing it at the time of preparation. Our analyses and conclusions are general in nature and do not take into account the individual needs of our investors in terms of earnings, taxation, and risk appetite. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of the future performance of a fund. Please note that investments in securities entail risks in addition to the opportunities presented here. The value of shares and their earnings can rise and fall. Changes in exchange rates can also have a positive or negative effect on the value of an investment. For this reason, you may receive less than your originally invested amount when you redeem your shares. Persons who are interested in purchasing shares in investment funds are advised to read the current fund prospectus(es) and the Information for Investors pursuant to § 21 AIFMG, especially the risk notices they contain, before making an investment decision.
Please consult the corresponding information in the fund prospectus and the Information for Investors pursuant to § 21 AIFMG for restrictions on the sale of fund shares to American citizens. Misprints and errors excepted.
