ESG & Sustainable Investing

The Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) has been the flagship climate initiative for banks to advertise their commitment to aligning their investment and lending portfolios with net-zero targets by 2050 or sooner. However, in recent weeks the NZBA has been hit with the withdrawal of all its major Wall Street banks.

In the past 10 days the European asset-backed securities (ABS) market has welcomed five debut issuers across multiple jurisdictions and asset classes, with the most notable being Europe’s first public solar green ABS from Enpal.

Johnathan Owen (Portfolio Management) from our investment grade team discussed social bonds in more detail and TwentyFour's approach to considering social factors in the companies that we invest in.

Johnathan Owen, Portfolio Management, discusses our longstanding carbon emissions engagement policy and its focus on collaborating with companies we believe we can influence. Our goal has been to shape their environmental journey over the medium to long term, leading to a reduction in carbon emissions.

Back in April we looked in detail at the challenges and potential outcomes facing Thames Water, the debt-laden UK utility company battling to avoid government intervention. On the back of a lacklustre set of financial results and being placed into a “turnaround oversight regime” by the regulator Ofwat, Thames Water’s situation took a further turn for the worse last week.

On this webinar, Gordon Shannon (Partner, Portfolio Management) provided an introduction to our new sustainable, global investment grade fund Sustainable Global Corporate Bond Fund, in light of its upcoming launch.

The term ‘fossil fuel financing’ refers to the provision of capital (including loans, investments, and other forms of capital) to companies involved in the exploration, extraction and production of coal, oil and natural gas.

Following yesterday’s release of Italian energy company Enel's 2023 annual sustainability report, it was confirmed that they had failed to meet the emissions reduction key performance indicator (KPI) linked to a number of their sustainability linked bonds (SLBs).

On this webinar in our Spotlight on ESG series, Johnathan Owen, Portfolio Management discussed fossil fuel financing and how we engage with banks on this subject.

We previously blogged about Thames Water in July last year but it’s rapidly refloated to the top of UK credit market concerns. Following more recent events, where do we think Thames Water go from here?

Much like the European market, Australian ABS has started 2024 with considerable momentum, with over AU$12bn in issuance year-to-date and a significant pipeline building. But how are its green credentials?

On this latest educational webinar in our Spotlight on ESG series, Charlene Hogg (Head of Legal) and Sujan Nadarajah (Partner, Chief Compliance Officer) were joined by our guest speaker, Michaela Walker (Partner & Product Group Head, Eversheds Sutherland), to advise on the various relevant regulatory changes, including the impact of ESG and sustainability factors on funds and fund managers.