Danish mutual pension provider Velliv has made a new investment of more than $550m (€453m) into an emerging markets debt fund run by Nordic asset manager Nordea.
Nordea Asset Management (NAM) announced it had received the allocation in its Emerging Stars Bond strategy, which it said mainly invested in hard currency sovereigns.
Anders Stensbøl Christiansen, CIO at Velliv, said: “We all have a responsibility to make sure our investments are managed with high sustainability standards. This does not only go for investments in companies, but is equally important when we invest in, for instance, bonds issued from emerging market countries.”
He said Nordea Asset Management set high standards and had a “very thorough” process for analysing ESG-related risks in emerging market debt.
“Combining this with a strong and robust investment process and team around it, we are convinced our emerging market bonds exposures are in the right place with Nordea Asset Management,” Stensbøl Christiansen said.
NAM said the fund avoided countries with poor ESG profiles, adding that this helped guard against financially-material ESG risks.
Last month, Finnish pensions insurer Varma said it had invested $240m in Nordea’s ESG-focused Emerging Stars Equity Fund, citing the fund’s active management as particularly important, because there was a scarcity of ESG data in emerging markets.
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