The sustainable cross-asset portfolio was launched in Asia in April 2018 and has since pulled in $1bn from Apac investors, according to the firm.
Since October 2019, it has accumulated around $400m from Apac investors. At the time, Mario Knoepfel, Hong Kong-based client investment specialist and head of sustainable investing advisory, told FSA that the AUM was at least $600m.
Globally, the portfolio has gathered $10bn in assets, according to a statement from the firm.
“The goal of this strategy is to replicate a traditional strategic asset allocation in a way that not only delivers sustainability outcomes but does in a way that will match traditional strategies in terms of risk and returns,” James Gifford, former Hong Kong-based head of impact investing for the firm, said at the time (Gifford has since moved to Credit Suisse).
Because the aim is to replicate a traditional allocation, the product is not positioned as a theme or a satellite strategy, but a core portfolio, Mischa Eckart, the firm’s Singapore-based head of client investment specialists for Asia-Pacific previously noted.
The sustainable portfolio was launched in the region after the bank said it noted interest from Asia-based clients in sustainable investments.
In Asia, roughly half of the AUM is new money, while the other half came from investments that were previously allocated to the bank’s traditional portfolios, the firm said.
In the middle of 2018, around 100 investors in the region, a majority of which came from Hong Kong, put money into the portfolio.
Separately, UBS’s Oncology Impact Fund, which invests in companies that are active in cancer research, today announced a donation of $4m, with $2m going to the UBS Optimus Foundation and $2m to the American Association for Cancer Research, according to the same statement.
In 2016, the Oncology Impact Fund was created exclusively for UBS by US-based healthcare fund manager MPM Capital. At the time, $471m was raised from the bank’s clients, half of which came from Asia, FSA previously reported.
