Nordea adds North American equity fund to its ESG range

Nordea Asset Management (NAM) has expanded its ESG range (STARS) with the launch of a North America equity fund.

The Nordea 1 - North American Stars Equity Fund, which leverages the successful track record of the Nordea 1 - Global Stars Equity Fund, will adopt a pure bottom-up stock picking strategy with over $350m in assets under management.

The fund is managed by Johan Swahn, a member of the fundamental equities team, who is also a portfolio manager of the Nordea 1 - Global Stars Equity Fund.

The new strategy raises to six the number of strategies composing NAM's STARS equity range, which represents a unique concept where portfolio management teams fully integrate ESG factors into the investment process and use dialogue and engagement to make a real impact, Nordea says.

Jens Rygaard, CIO, fixed income and equities and acting head of Nordea's Fundamental Equities team, said: "We evaluate stocks to identify companies able to deliver sustainable long-term shareholder value. We not only invest in companies with high ESG standards, we go a step further by quantifying and integrating ESG into our valuation model."