Thornburg Investment Management (Thornburg), has marked the fifth anniversary of the Thornburg Better World International Fund.“Investors may be skeptical about whether ESG-focused strategies can improve long-term performance,” says Portfolio Manager Di Zhou. “We have demonstrated with Better World International Fund’s short- and long-term performance that indeed we can offer investors a solution that does good in the world while simultaneously doing well in their portfolios.”
The Better World International Fund is a core international equity fund that integrates environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors with global fundamental research to deliver a high-performing portfolio of sustainable companies. The Fund typically invests in companies trading at a discount to their intrinsic value and demonstrates one or more significant positive ESG characteristics with the power to last and grow over time. The strategy is available to US retail and institutional investors.
“Thornburg Better World International Fund is a natural extension of our corporate culture of sustainability,” says Thornburg President and CEO Jason Brady. “Led by founder and chairman Garrett Thornburg and bolstered by our global team, Thornburg’s commitment to the principles underlying ESG is seen through our community involvement, employee volunteerism, and in our LEED gold certified headquarters in Santa Fe, New Mexico—an example of energy- and water- efficient design.”
As of 30 September, 2020, the institutional share class of the Fund received an overall five-star Morningstar rating and its five-year performance based on its risk-adjusted returns ranks it first among 548 peers in Morningstar’s Foreign Large Blend category, since inception. The Fund also ranks first among 47 international ESG funds classified as “ESG Overall” in Morningstar’s Foreign Large Value, Blend and Growth categories over the same five-year period. In Morningstar’s Foreign Large Blend category, the Fund is ranked in the first percentile over one-, three-, and five-year periods out of 761, 647 and 548 funds, respectively, and in the second percentile year-to-date out of 774 funds.
In addition, as of 31 August, 2020, the Fund’s Morningstar Historical Sustainability Score ranks in the top 7 per cent of 6,718 funds in the Global Equity Large Cap category, receiving five globes. This achievement makes the Fund one of the best-performing international environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies available to investors in the Global Equity Large Cap category. As of 12 October, 2020, the fund has $107 million in assets.
