BNP Paribas Asset Management has restructured its Human Development fund and changed its investment strategy to focus on “inclusive growth”.
The thematic fund will invest in companies that perform well on social themes like income inequality, education, gender, ethnicity, geographic origin, age and disability.
According to the firm, the renamed BNP Paribas Inclusive Growth fund will base its investment strategy on an ‘inclusion score’, rating companies on how they perform on these social themes.
Equality and inclusive growth combine to form an “essential” component of companies’ ESG scores, the firm said, adding that Covid-19 had highlighted the social aspect of responsible investing.
Maria Luz Diaz Blanco and Anne Froideval, portfolio managers of the Inclusive Growth fund, said performance indicators such as employee turnover rate and board diversity allowed them to select stocks.
The portfolio will consist of between 40-60 stocks selected following analysis of around 1,000 firms.
Delphine Riou, ESG analyst at BNP Paribas Asset Management, said: “We believe that companies that implement the best practices of diversity and inclusion with their employees, their customers or their suppliers can achieve better financial results.”
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