Fixed income investment firm PIMCO has expanded its range of ESG solutions with the PIMCO GIS Emerging Markets Bond ESG Fund.
The fund offers access to PIMCO’s successful emerging markets bond strategy in combination with the firm’s proprietary ESG scoring framework and portfolio construction process.
It is managed by Yacov Arnopolin, Executive Vice President, Javier Romo, Senior Vice President, and Pramol Dhawan, Managing Director and Global Head of the Emerging Markets Portfolio Management team.
The PIMCO GIS Emerging Markets Bond ESG Fund invests in a broad range of dollar-denominated bonds issued by emerging market sovereign and quasi-sovereign entities with tactical allocations in local currency instruments. With an objective of maximising total return, the portfolio management uses PIMCO’s proprietary ESG score to construct a portfolio of emerging market instruments from issuers that have a greater focus on environmental, social and governance practices. PIMCO’s established three pillar ESG approach builds on an intense screening process and consists of distinct exclusion, evaluation and engagement components to influence positive change.
Dhawan says: “Investor demand for emerging market strategies with an ESG orientation continues to grow. Combining our emerging markets expertise with our proprietary ESG approach is the next logical step in the evolution of our emerging markets ESG solutions.”
As part of this process, PIMCO converted and renamed the previous PIMCO GIS Socially Responsible Emerging Markets Bond Fund into PIMCO GIS Emerging Markets Bond ESG Fund. The PIMCO GIS Socially Responsible Emerging Markets Bond Fund was launched in 2010 and since then established a robust track record and has approximately $680 million in net assets. While this SRI fund applied a pure exclusion list, the PIMCO GIS Emerging Markets Bond ESG Fund fully incorporates PIMCO’s three pillar ESG approach.
PIMCO aims to provide investors access to its unique proprietary ESG approach across a range of key investment strategies. The suite of dedicated ESG UCITS funds now includes the PIMCO GIS Emerging Markets Bond ESG Fund, PIMCO GIS Global Investment Grade Credit ESG Fund and PIMCO GIS Global Bond ESG Fund.
PIMCO GIS Emerging Markets Bond ESG Fund is accessible in a variety of share classes in different currencies, depending on client requirements. PIMCO’s UCITS-compliant Global Investor Series (GIS) fund range comprises 60 sub-funds with USD177.8 billion under management as of 30 June 2019. With daily liquidity, investors can gain exposure to a broad range of asset classes, from the more traditional global and regional core fixed income funds, through credit portfolios, to expanding equity, asset allocation and alternative solutions.
