UBS announced Thursday it has made the Federated Hermes SDG Engagement High Yield Credit bond fund available to U.S. clients.
Mark Haefele, global chief investment officer at UBS Wealth Management, said: “Investors must understand companies’ sustainability issues on every level as they strive to maximize their returns as well as their support for sustainability goals. Engaging with firms as issuers of debt as well as equity is an important new step on this journey.”
The fund is managed by Mitch Reznick, head of research and sustainable fixed income at Hermes Investment Management, and Fraser Lundie, head of credit at Hermes.
The fund is advised by Federated Investment Management Company, subadvised by Hermes and distributed by Federated Securities Corp. Federated Investors Inc., the parent company of the advisor and distributor, acquired a majority interest in London-based Hermes Fund Managers Limited in 2018.
The fund will form part of UBS’s $5 billion commitment to sustainable development goal–related impact investing. Separately, it and another fund being offered to European investors in October represent the first new strategy added to UBS’s 100% sustainable multiasset portfolio since its launch last year.
The fund aims to support key sustainability initiatives spanning the financial services industry. These include the U.N.-backed Principles for Responsible Investment, which has called for fund managers to engage more effectively with bond issuers, and the International Finance Corporation’s Operating Principles for Impact Management, a new set of global impact investing standards that UBS shaped and signed alongside roughly 60 other companies earlier this year.