Stockholm (NordSIP) – Erik Penser Bank (EPB) announced the launch of Penser Sustainable Impact, a new fund combining sustainability analysis with a quantitative investment methodology. In addition, part of the return will fund SOS Barnbyar’s program for young people in community care in Stockholm.
The fund operates along a three-stage investment process. First, the fund screens out companies invested in unethical industries such as alcohol, weapons, tobacco, GMOs, gaming industry pornography, nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. In the second stage, it screens out environmental, human rights, child labour, corporate governance and health and safety controversies as well as violations of the UN Global Compact Principles. The third stage applies a best-in-class positive screen based on positive ESG trends.
“The creation of this fund has been a two-year-long process,” Jonas Thulin, Head of Asset Management at EPB, told NordSIP. “We have run the strategies in discretionary mandates and developed the fund alongside them. As we incorporate 20 million data points in our sustainable analysis it has taken a while to reach a global mandate.”
“The fund is the brainchild of myself and Jonatan Werner, who is also a portfolio manager for the fund. Moreover, we have also been assisted by five mathematicians as well.”
According to EPB, the sustainability analysis used to screen potential investments is comprehensive and based on the EU’s forthcoming sustainability legislation. The asset manager also reports that backtesting suggests a historical return over the past fifteen years more than twice as high as that of a comparable global equity management alternative.
According to Thulin, the fund is the most sustainable in Sweden. “We can now run all funds through several databases, such as MSCI, and apply filters based on our investment management style. That allows us to see exactly what our competitors fail at, including haveing child labour, gambling, etc. As far as we can see, there is currently no global equity fund available in Sweden that manages to meet all of our criteria. Hence we are the most sustainable.”
Erik Penser Bank is a Stockholm-based asset manager owned by Nils Wilhelm Erik Penser, a Swedish financier, with approximately SEK6 billion in assets under management as of December 31st, 2019.
Image courtesy of EPB
