Stockholm (NordSIP) – Despite the turbulent market conditions, fund market data for the UK suggests that investors are continuing to shift assets from conventional to ESG investments.
According to a recent Refinitiv Lipper’s analysis of ESG investments in the UK market for the first quarter of 2022, ESG equity fund flows were dominant with £8.6 billion flowing motivated by investors exiting £10.8 billion of non-ESG equity positions. The dominant category was global equity funds, where £7.6 billion fowed into ESG funds as to £3.5 billion exited their convention counterparts over the quarte.A similar trend at a smaller scale was also visible in bond markets.
“While this is a well-established trend with equities, there’s been a less distinct pattern with other asset classes, so it’ll be interesting to see if the same thing is happening here—investors swapping brown for green assets—and if it can withstand any sustained performance revival of the former,” the report said of the flow of funds from non-ESG to ESG funds.
Funds that invest in mixed assets saw flows into both ESG and non-ESG categories, while investors seem to have decreased their net positions in ethical and conventional money market funds by £2.5 billion and £9.4billion, respectively.
The dominant asset manager is BlackRock, which welcomed £5.1billion in ESG equity flows, followed by Royal London, UBS Legal & General, HSBC and Fidelity International, the last of which stands out for the abundance of ESG bond inflows.
