Nordea Asset Management has soft closed the Nordea 1 - Global Climate and Environment fund, effective 26 February 2021.

The rapid growth of the fund has been cited as the reason for the closure, with assets under management (AuM) doubling over the course of 12 months and growing more than 500% in the past two years.

It had reached more than €6bn AuM by the end of January 2021, resulting in the soft closure of the fund to protect the "best interests of existing shareholders".

Launched in 2008 following Nordea's signing of the UNPRI, the fundamental equities team which manages the fund has since grown its range of ESG-focused products and now manages assets exceeding €20bn.

Co-manager of the fund Thomas Sørensen said: "We have been truly humbled by the trust that investors around the globe have placed in both Nordea and our Global Climate and Environment solution.

"Protecting our clients' interests remains our top priority."

The fund has returned 23.1%, 12.9% and 20.4% over one, three and five years respectively, according to data from Morningstar.

(First published by our sister title Investment Week)