Governance

Swiss pension fund issues bond mandate excluding arms, tobacco

CHF100m mandate also targets revenues from gambling, nuclear energy and genetically modified organisms

-

A Swiss pension fund has issued a CHF100m (€76.7m) corporate investment-grade bonds mandate specifically excluding firms deriving most of their revenues from armaments, tobacco, gambling and nuclear energy.
Chemicals firms with large genetically modified organism (GMO) revenues are also excluded.
The mandate, posted by an investment consultant for an unnamed pension fund client, appears on IPE-Quest, the manager search facility of Investments &Pensions Europe. “Excluded from the universe are all companies whose revenue from armament, tobacco, gambling, and nuclear energy exceeds 5% of total revenue as well as chemical companies where GMO exceeds 5% of the total revenue,” it says.
The brief calls for a segregated portfolio and is benchmarked against the Citigroup Euro BIG (Broad Investment Grade) index.
The long-only mandate is Quest no. QN1160 and the closing date is February 16. Link