Blackrock has launched number of emerging market bond funds that take into account environmental and social criteria as well as aspects of good corporate governance (ESG). The Ucits funds are actively managed and measured on ESG indices, which JP Morgan co-launched with Blackrock in April 2018 – the so-called JESG EMD indices.
Investors will have access to debt securities issued by governments, local public authorities and emerging market companies through the funds.
The new product range includes the following funds:
– BGF ESG Emerging Markets Bond fund
– BGF ESG Emerging Markets Local Currency Bond fund
– BGF ESG Emerging Markets Corporate Bond fund
– BGF ESG Emerging Markets Blended Bond fund
Brian Deese, head of Sustainable Investing at BlackRock, said: “We are building tools that allow our portfolio managers to analyse relevant sustainability information alongside the traditional financial metrics to inform active investment decisions about where to invest.”
Giulia Pellegrini, head of EMD Sustainable Investing and portfolio manager in BlackRock’s Emerging Market Debt team, commented: “The gap between ESG leaders and laggards is large in the EM world, and a strong ESG data can provide forward-looking information that captures the underlying deterioration of an issuer’s creditworthiness, sometimes well before standard macro credit metrics. These funds harness our proprietary ESG scoring and other analytic tools to help build ESG-focused investment themes that take advantage of additional alpha-generating opportunities in the EMD space.”
