Investment Week, Pedro Gonçalves, @PeterHSG, 15 February 2021
Targeting Brazil, India, China and Indonesia, Europe’s largest asset manager Amundi has launched an emerging markets green bond strategy for international institutional and retail investors.
Amundi Funds Emerging Markets Green Bond invests in green bonds issued in hard currency primarily by corporates as well as some exposure to sovereigns in selected emerging markets, such as Brazil, India, China and Indonesia.
It seeks to take advantage of the growth in green bonds, which saw a record $52bn of issuance in 2019, with total issuances reaching $240bn.
The firm stated that by making green bonds more widely available to investors worldwide, additional private capital can be mobilised for the energy transition, therby helping emerging countries mitigate the adverse effects of climate change risks.
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Yerlan Syzdykov, head of emerging markets at Amundi, said: “Investors are increasingly looking for solutions that deliver yield and have a positive impact on the environment. Emerging market green bonds are particularly well suited to capturing both of these opportunities.
“We have already seen that 2019 was a vintage year for the global green bond market, and emerging market green bonds in particular are growing rapidly. We are proud to leverage Amundi’s recognised EM expertise to offer investors the opportunity to gain exposure to green projects while contributing towards a tangible and sustainable impact on the environment.”
The fund is managed by Maxim Vydrine, co-head of emerging markets corporate and high yield debt at Amundi, as a lead portfolio manager, supported by Sergei Strigo and Paolo Cei as co-portfolio managers.
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The strategy is an actively managed solution incorporating both a top-down and bottom-up investment approach, investing in a selection of corporate issuers from a range of sectors including alternative energy sources and utilities, financials, transport, and real estate.
Amundi Funds Emerging Markets Green Bond is available within the Amundi Funds flagship Luxembourg SICAV and is currently registered in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, UK, Italy (institutional investors), Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.
Amundi will publish an annual impact report to demonstrate how the firm screens issuers in order to make sure that the outlined ESG criteria are met.
