13 November 2019
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J.P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) has launched an emerging markets equity fund that seeks to provide long term capital growth by investing sustainably in companies from developing economies.
JPMorgan Funds - Emerging Markets Sustainable Equity Fund will be co-managed by portfolio managers Amit Mehta and John Citron, who are part of JPMAM's Global Emerging Markets (GEM) Fundamental Team.
The GEM team, led by Austin Forey, has been integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk analysis and engaging with companies for more than 25 years. Last year the team conducted close to 5,000 meetings with EM companies.
Bringing together a team of nearly 40 buy-side research analysts and a dedicated sustainable investing team, this fund will capitalize on an established, in-depth investment process to identify the most sustainable EM companies likely to generate the best long-term returns.
The fund managers will screen EM equities to cut out unsustainable industries and businesses, using two distinct criteria: norms and principles based exclusions as well as proprietary exclusions based on the firm's own in-depth research. From this narrowed down set of companies, the fund managers will seek to identify and invest in sustainable leaders who are best-in-class in their industry. The final result will be a portfolio intended to provide positive outcomes in terms of its overall ESG impact.
Massimo Greco, head of EMEA Funds at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said: "Having long integrated consideration of ESG issues into our emerging market equities investment process, our fund managers can combine our proprietary research with the incorporation of exclusions and a best-in-class approach that investors are seeking.
"Sustainable investing is critical in emerging markets - we believe it is entirely compatible with and, indeed, essential for a long-term investment approach that aims to deliver better results and allows the power of compounding to translate into investment outcomes."
The C share class of EM Sustainability Equity Fund will have a total expense ratio of 1.05% basis points.
