Calvert launches sustainable emerging markets fund, advised by Hermes

US-based sustainable fund firm Calvert has launched a new emerging markets equity fund with assets to be managed by Hermes Investment Management – which will contribute capital to the fund.

The Calvert Emerging Markets Equity Fund will be run using sustainable and socially responsible investment criteria and will seek to invest in companies which help address global sustainability challenges.

The themes include: development, poverty and health; environment and climate change; and rights and governance. It will also screen for tobacco, weapons and human rights.

In addition investments may be excluded for extraordinary events and controversial issues that affect firms’ “social license” to operate.“The fund seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in equity securities of companies located in emerging market countries, using the fund’s sustainability and corporate responsibility criteria,” Calvert says in the fund prospectus.

Assets will be managed by Hermes, the UK-based fund firm owned by the BT Pension Scheme, headed up by Lead Portfolio Manager Gary Greenberg and his colleague Elena Tedesco. It will be benchmarked against the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

The fund may also invest a small percentage of its assets in Calvert’s High Social Impact Investments and Special Equities programmes.

Bethesda, Maryland-based Calvert, a subsidiary of financial conglomerate Ameritas Mutual Holding Co., has over $12bn (€9.3bn) in assets under management.