Investment manager Schroders has secured a £5.2 billion sustainable investment mandate from UK wealth manager St. James’s Place, with the allocation transition set to begin in Q1 2025.
The mandate, allocated through SJP’s Sustainable & Responsible Equity (SRE) fund, will follow Schroders’ Global Sustainable Value Equity and Global Sustainable Growth strategies. This combination of value and growth investment styles aims to provide SJP’s investors with diversified exposure to companies and opportunities globally.
Both the SRE fund and Schroders’ Global Sustainable Value and Growth funds plan to adopt the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) ‘Sustainability Focus’ label under the new Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR).
The SDR, introduced by the UK’s financial regulator, the FCA, mandates sustainability labels, disclosures, anti-greenwashing rules, and marketing guidelines for UK-domiciled funds. A Sustainability Focus label requires products to align with a robust, evidence-based sustainability standard, with at least 70% of assets meeting that standard and no conflicts with its sustainability objectives.
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This builds on Schroders’ recent commitment to adopting the FCA’s SDR labels for at least 10 of its funds, as announced in December. These labels, “differentiating sustainable products”, would help clients identify sustainable investment opportunities more easily, according to the providers.
Richard Oldfield, group chief executive at Schroders, said: “Our partnership with SJP is a testament to the robustness of our active investment proposition, which has been further reinforced by meeting the FCA’s new criteria for sustainability labels across many of our funds. We are grateful for the trust SJP has placed in us and look forward to working closely together to meet their investment objectives.”
Alex Tedder, co-head of equities at Schroders, added: “This investment allocation by SJP underlines the quality of our active investment process and commitment to delivering sustainable outcomes for our investors. Clients, investors and the industry are increasingly focused on bespoke investment solutions that are able to deliver strong risk-adjusted returns together with a comprehensive commitment to sustainability. Our broad-based capability and commitment to active management puts us in a strong position to meet client objectives in a rapidly transforming investment environment.”
