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    Invesco Expands Nordics Team Amid ESG Push

    Stockholm (NordSIP) – Following the appointment of Fredrik Nilsson as Head of ETF Business Development at the end of last year, Invesco added two new members to its Stockholm-based Nordics team in April. Elin Lilja-Wainwright (Pictured, Left) and Anna Mellström (Pictured, Right) joined as Marketing Manager for the Nordic region and as Relationship Manager responsible for Nordic clients, respectively.

    Lilja-Wainwright joins Invesco from Norron Asset Management. Prior to this, she was a marketing lead at global management consultancy Kearney in London. Anna Mellström joins from Danske Bank where she worked in Fund settlement.

    ESG Expertise

    “I was the Communications and ESG Manager, so I have extensive experience working with, and a keen interest in, ESG,” Lilja-Wainwright tells NordSIP. “I have had the pleasure of working with sustainability at a very exciting time when the topic has been subject to increasing amounts of exposure and devotion with daily developments in the field. I worked very closely with the investment team and headed up the firm’s ESG Council where we established systems and processes with the purpose of integrating and focussing the firm’s ESG work.”­

    “I welcome the current focus and high level of activity in the ESG field, and I think that what we have experienced to date is just the beginning. The only way to achieve actual change is for everyone to work together towards a more sustainable future. I like the phrase “partnership is the new leadership”, the fact that this concerns us all and that we are in this together,” Lilja-Wainwright says.

    “There is definitely an emphasis on ESG at Invesco and we see a huge interest and demand for ESG products in the Nordic markets. As a response to this and as part of the overall strategy, we have recently developed and launched several ESG products and there is more in the pipeline,” Lilja-Wainwright explains. Recently, Invesco has been developing new ESG strategies with several recent fund launches during the beginning of 2021. This increased ESG focus is particularly relevant for Invesco’s Nordic team, as the investment theme is a “topical area where the Nordic region is at the forefront.”

    “We are pleased to confirm that 18 of our existing funds comply with Article 8 and that imminent launches and reclassifications are in progress that will bring the total number of Article 8 funds to 28 by the end of May 2021. What we see now is just the beginning. Whilst we acknowledge that SFDR is just one piece of a very large puzzle, we are committed to delivering an increasing set of Article 8 products for our clients and are reviewing our full range with the expectation of moving more funds into the Article 8 category by this summer,” Lilja-Wainwright adds. “While we currently have no funds that meet the criteria of Article 9, we will continue to explore this space. Pivoting and launching funds is a complex, time-consuming process and we look forward to sharing these developments, and others, with you, over the coming months.”

    Nordic Demand for ESG

    “We expect sustainable investments to become more mainstream globally and remain a key focus especially for the Nordic region,” Stefan Behring, Invesco’s Head of Nordic Region, says. “As ESG topics evolve, the differentiation between ESG strategies will follow suit.”

    “For example, it’s possible that the growing interest in thematic investments over time will compete with the interest in regional ESG focused strategies,” Behring adds. “We also note a growing interest in discussing ESG within alternative investments. For instance, within Real Estate, our asset management team engage with our tenants with a focus on managing environmental issues and lower carbon emissions in our directly held assets.”

    “I am delighted that our strong business growth has allowed us to expand our local resources. With Fredrik, Anna and Elin onboard we have considerably increased our Nordic presence. These strategic hires respond to a growing demand and will strengthen our regional foothold which will allow us to better serve our local clients,” Behring concludes.

    Image by Dima Burakov from Pixabay and courtesy of Invesco

    Filipe Albuquerque
    Filipe Albuquerque
    Filipe is an economist with 8 years of experience in macroeconomic and financial analysis for the Economist Intelligence Unit, the UN World Institute for Development Economic Research, the Stockholm School of Economics and the School of Oriental and African Studies. Filipe holds a MSc in European Political Economy from the LSE and a MSc in Economics from the University of London, where he currently is a PhD candidate.
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