Having started reviewing funds on a quarterly basis one year ago, we are pleased to showcase our newly formatted performance review for Article 9 funds.
Our goal in publishing a quarterly review of Article 9 funds is to enable investors to consider how this universe evolves over the years, through periodical snapshots. We also noticed how the Article 9 fund universe evolves at a rapid pace given regulatory changes but also shift in managers’ focus.
It is clear that sustainable investors shouldn’t be impatient. The value of sustainability lies in longer-term trends. However, the business of asset management tends to be more short-term focused and it is therefore interesting to checking with managers on a regular basis, to understand how the concepts and priorities that lie behind their strategies are evolving.
To limit the universe of our survey we have considered two groups. The first one consists in Nordic-based managers which offer Article 9-classified funds to Swedish retail investors. Out of those, we only consider those with a track-record of at least a quarter and those wth actively managed strategies, both for global equities and for fixed income. The second group is composed of the international asset managers who have entered into a partnership with NordSIP over the past 12 months and have accepted to participate either with publicly listed funds in global equities or fixed income or with private asset funds.
Across four articles, this publication covers the performance of 59 global actively-managed Article 9 funds: 16 Nordic-based Equity funds, 14 Nordic-based Fixed Income funds, 20 funds from international partners investing in public assets and 9 funds from international partners investing in private assets.
There was a consensus across all funds surveyed that the changes in the interest rate environment and a continued bullishness on artificial intelligence (AI) and healthcare were the main drivers of the market. The “higher for longer” interest rate environment was beneficial for long duration bond funds but painful for renewable energy stocks due to their reliance on leveraged demand. Nevertheless, there was some hope that the recent woes of renewables would soon be at an end.
A lack of clarity about future macroeconomic developments led most of our partners’ funds investing in public assets to assume a neutral stance going forward. Partners investing in private assets were bullish on emerging markets, agriculture, financial inclusion and their ability to continue to weather the market.”
