Vice Still Pays When You're Managing Billions
Can fund managers create socially conscious credit portfolios that are also better investments?
Can money make the world keep going round?
Photographer: Luke MacGregor/BloombergFund managers are grappling with how to incorporate environmental, social and governance considerations into their portfolios. A movement that started in equities has spread across asset classes. For credit investors, the trick to investing with a conscience without hurting returns may lie with which corporate bonds they load up on as much as with those they choose to shun.
Chris Bowie, who helps oversee 15 billion pounds ($18.5 billion) as a partner at TwentyFour Asset Management in London, has used his Absolute Return Credit strategy as the basis for testing what incorporating ESG into his bond selections would have done to returns. The fund aims to deliver 2.5 percentage points more than cash and is restricted to holding no more than 100 investment-grade bonds.