PGIM Investments continues to expand its global UCITS footprint with the addition of its first ESG equity fund which joins a number of fixed income funds incorporating an ESG process.
Sub-advised by QMA, the actively managed PGIM QMA Global Core Equity ESG Fund evaluates the ESG status of every security in the global core equity universe and integrates these insights into the fund, aiming to avoid the worst ESG offenders while maintaining performance expectations.
PGIM Investments is the global manufacturer and fund distributor of PGIM, the USD1 trillion global investment management business of Prudential Financial. QMA is PGIM’s quantitative equity and global multi-asset solutions manager.
“We’re pleased to provide a new investment solution for investors who want the potential benefit of ESG factors,” says Stuart Parker, president and CEO of PGIM Investments. “The ESG equity fund, like the rest of our platform, draws from PGIM’s multi-manager model, bringing PGIM Investments’ and QMA’s capabilities to serve a significant need for ESG products from global clients.”
ESG investing is estimated at more than USD20 trillion – or a quarter of all professionally managed assets around the world. The fund joins a number of fixed income UCITS that factor ESG into their strategies. The current UCITS platform, launched in 2013, has grown to 28 funds. Domiciled in Ireland, the UCITS platform spans multiple sectors in fixed income, equity and real estate with 16 country registrations across Europe and Asia. The platform has grown to USD3.1 billion in assets under management as of 30 September, 2018, growing 24 per cent in the last year.
“Our proprietary way of looking at data allows QMA to integrate ESG factors into portfolios aiming for performance comparable to non-ESG holdings,” says Andrew Dyson (pictured), QMA chairman and CEO. “This process—which also solves for the industry-wide challenge of data sparsity when investing in ESG – is built around our time-tested core investment strategy that identifies alpha opportunities using value, growth and quality factors.”
