PGIM, the investment management business of Prudential Financial, has made the recently launched PGIM Strategic Income ESG Fund available to professional investors in Singapore and Hong Kong
Managed by PGIM Fixed Income, the fund is an ESG-integrated multi-sector bond strategy, with a focus both on income generation and capital appreciation, according to the asset manager.
The strategy’s investment universe covers investment grade and high yield credit, emerging market debt, commercial mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities and government bonds. Since the launch of the PGIM Strategic Income ESG Fund in Europe in last December, the portfolio management team has maintained a significant underweight to US treasuries and agency mortgage-backed securities, preferring to focus on more attractive opportunities across spread sectors.
The management team is led by Michael Collins, Gregory Peters, Richard Piccirillo, Lindsay Rosner and Robert Tipp. The portfolio managers seek to identify compelling relative value opportunities across a diverse spectrum of global fixed income sectors, while emphasising issuers with strong ESG credentials.
“Income strategies continue to be top of mind for Asian investors and over the past few years, we have seen a marked increase in portfolio allocation to ESG across the Singapore and Hong Kong markets. A growing number of investors are looking for sustainable investment products that align with their social purpose,” said Jessica Jones, managing director and head of Asia at PGIM Investments, in a statement.
ESG proprietary framework
PGIM Fixed Income uses a proprietary ESG impact rating framework to assess issuers’ impact on the environment and society — with ratings for every issuer. These ESG ratings are assigned by its team of more than 110 analysts, working in collaboration with the five-strong ESG research team, and overseen by PGIM Fixed Income’s ESG committee.
The PGIM Strategic Income ESG Fund is the group’s eighth dedicated ESG UCITS strategy offered to non-US investors, with each fund classified as Article 8 under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation.
“As the global post-pandemic recovery continues, with unfamiliar obstacles such as lingering inflation, our diversified Strategic Income ESG Fund has the ability to capitalise on changing market opportunities, while still mitigating downside risks. Credit spreads have become much more volatile in this highly uncertain geopolitical and macro backdrop, and warrants a discerning approach to credit selection,” said Gregory Peters, co-CIO and head of multi-sector and strategy at PGIM Fixed Income.
The PGIM Strategic Income ESG Fund, a sub-fund of the Irish-domiciled UCITS fund umbrella, PGIM Funds plc, is currently registered for sale in the UK and various European jurisdictions, as well as being available to professional investors in Hong Kong and Singapore.
